THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


Helladian  Vistas 


By 

DON  DANIEL  QUINN,  PH.D. 
Successively 

Student  at  the  American  School  of  Classical  Studies,  Athens,  Greece 

Professor  of  Greek  at  Mt.  St.  Mary's  College,  Maryland 

Professor  of  Greek  at  the  Catholic  University,  Washington,  and 

Rector  of  the  Leant eion,  Athens,  Greece 


Now 


Pastor  of  St.  Paul's,  Tellow  Springs,  Ohio,  and 
Professor  at  Antioch  College 


SECOND  EDITION 


YELLOW  SPRINGS,  OHIO 
1909 


Die  20.  Octobris  1908 


Imprimatur : 

Henricus  Moeller 

Archiepiscopus  Cincinnatensis 


COPYRIGHT   1908   BY 
DANIEL  QUINN 


Published  January   1909 


"OF 


NOTE 

The  following  chapters  have  already  appeared  in 
print  as  magazine  articles.  They  are  republished  with 
the  kind  permission  of  the  editors  of  Harper's  Maga- 
zine, the  American  Catholic  Quarterly,  the  Catholic 
World,  Donahoe's  Magazine,  and  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity Bulletin. 

Frequent  repetitions  of  thought  and  expression 
have  been  allowed  to  remain,  although  almost  inex- 
cusable. 

To  my  many  friends  in  Greece  and  in  America  I 
am  grateful  for  much  assistance  kindly  given. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

BALKANIA i 

"MOTHER  OF  ARTS" 5 

THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS 20 

HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  OF  TODAY   ...  33 

AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY 42 

THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE 52 

THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS 63 

DELPHI 87 

IN  BCEOTIA 102 

THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS 125 

THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE 140 

THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN 151 

IN  ARKADIA 167 

MEGA  SPEL^ON  OR  THE  MONASTERY  OF  THE  GREAT 

CAVE 189 

THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA 216 

THE  PH^EAKS'  ISLAND 233 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS 255 

IN  LEVKAS 269 

THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST 288 

KEPHALLENIA 307 

THE  MANIATS 325 

MESOLONGHION 337 

THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS       .       .       .  351 
PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  AEGEAN.       .       .       .368 

THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK 390 


BALKANIA 

"Not  dead  but  sleeping." 

There  is  in  existence  no  one  state  or  commonwealth 
occupying  the  entirety  of  that  restless  land  which  might 
have  been  called  Balkania ;  but  possibly  there  ought  to 
have  been  such  a  commonwealth.  There  lies  in  the 
southeast  corner  of  Europe  a  very  wide  tract  of  won- 
derful country  richly  adorned  by  nature  and  not 
entirely  neglected  by  art,  which  for  the  nonce  we  are 
free  to  theoretically  style  "Balkania."  "Balkania"  is  so 
much  divided  in  nationality,  religion,  and  government, 
that  we  are  not  accustomed  to  regard  it  as  a  unit  in 
history,  and  are  not  used  to  designate  it  by  any  one 
common  and  general  name.  This  "Balkania"  includes 
all  that  portion  of  Europe  which  extends  from  Con- 
stantinople to  Triest,  and  from  the  Danube  to  Cape 
Malea. 

There  exists  no  nation  of  united  peoples  that  might 
be  called  the  "Balkan-folk,"  but  such  a  nation  could 
have  been  historically  created.  It  would  be  an  amalga- 
mated nation,  as  much  mixed  in  its  inhabitants  as  is 
any  other  civilized  country.  The  Balkanmen  would  con- 
tain both  Asiatic  and  European  elements  in  their  physi- 
cal constitution.  Turks  and  Greeks  and  Vlachs  and 
Bulgarmen  and  Slavs  and  Albanians  would  be  ingredi- 
ent portions  of  that  people.  These  are  all  very  active 
and  vital  elements,  which,  united,  might  have  been  the 
essence  of  a  powerful  state.  The  area  of  this  state 
would  be  about  identical  with  that  of  the  Balkan  Pen- 


2  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

insula.  But  there  is  no  near  probability  of  "Balkania" 
coming  into  a  state's  existence.  These  peoples  are  all 
hostile  to  each  other,  and  fail  to  recognize  or  appreciate 
common  interests. 

Balkanland  was  once  Romaean,  and  could  again  have 
become  Romaean  under  a  government  either  Hellenic 
or  Moslem.  But  the  propitious  opportunities  have 
been  neglected  by  both  Greeks  and  Turks.  As  a 
Romsean  state  it  would  have  continued  to  be  heir  to  the 
strength  and  eminence  of  Byzantion.  Had  the  Turks 
undertaken  to  form  such  a  state  they  might  have  suc- 
ceeded if  they  only  could  have  had  the  prudent  fore- 
sight of  separating  statedom  from  Islamism. 

After  the  empire  of  Rome  had  been  divided  into  two 
portions,  the  western  portion  was  destroyed,  in  476 
perhaps.  But  the  eastern  portion  healed  itself  from 
its  wounds  of  amputation,  and  rounded  itself  out  into 
an  independent  empire  which  continued  to  exist  until 
its  great  city,  Constantinople,  was  subjugated  by  the 
Turks  in  1453.  The  Byzantine  empire  was  Romaean 
because  it  had  been  formed  from  the  eastern  half  of 
the  empire  of  Rome.  It  was  the  East-Roman  state, 
and  was  molded  out  of  Hellenic  and  Hellenistic  ele- 
ments under  government  originally  centered  in  western 
Rome. 

Most  of  this  Balkanland  has  been  dominated  for 
four  centuries  by  the  Turks.  These  Moslem  conquer- 
ors, however,  have  signally  proved  themselves  unable  to 
gain  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  peoples  which 
they  have  externally  subdued,  and  have  been  equally 
unable  even  outwardly  to  amalgamate  all  these  inimical 
races  into  a  compact  and  vigorous  state  or  federation. 


BALKANIA  3 

Accordingly,  these  disunited  peoples  have  always  been 
incessantly  looking  forward  to  the  dawning  of  their 
day  of  manumission  from  Moslem  servitude. 

The  Greeks  were  the  first  to  succeed  in  acquiring 
freedom  for  a  portion  of  their  race,  after  a  terrible 
struggle  in  the  last  century.  But  the  liberated  Greeks 
committed  themselves  exclusively  to  the  narrower  task 
of  creating  not  a  Romsean  or  Hellenistic  nation,  but  a 
Hellenic  one.  In  other  words,  the  'newly  formed  state 
of  Greece  set  aside  her  potent  Romaean  traditions  and 
retained  only  her  Hellenic  aspirations.  This,  if  it  was 
the  nobler  selection,  was  surely  not  the  more  remunera- 
tive one.  The  regenerated  Greeks  never  set  about 
creating  a  comprehensive  and  liberal  Balkania.  They 
were  intent  merely  on  forming  a  "Greater  Greece." 

This  Hellenic  ideal  was  not  easy  to  be  made  accept- 
able to  the  other  wilder  races  and  tribes  of  the  land. 
Greece  therefore  cannot  be  said  so  far  to  have  been 
signally  successful  in  the  mission  which  she  set  herself 
to  perform. 

Since  the  partial  liberation  of  the  Greeks,  other  Bal- 
kanic  races  have  imitated  them  and  have  become  more 
or  less  independent,  or  even  free.  But  none  have  put 
themselves  to  the  generous  task  of  bringing  into  exist- 
ence a  Romaean  Balkania,  to  be  formed  of  all  the  races 
on  equal  terms.  Each  race  wishes  the  advancement  of 
its  own  people  only,  and  desires  to  dominate  over  the 
other  races.  There,  therefore,  has  been  never  any 
whole-hearted,  united  action. 

Of  all  the  races  that,  after  the  Turks,  had  the  duty 
of  constructing  a  Balkania,  the  Greeks  and  the  new 
Hellenic  state  should  have  had  the  clearest  conception 


4  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  consciousness  of  this  duty.  But,  except  in  the  time 
of  Alexander,  the  Greeks  were  never  makers  of  exten- 
sive empires.  They  were  the  life  and  sustenance  of 
several  great  states,  but  were  hardly  the  creators  of 
them.  It  was  not  therefore  readily  to  be  realized  that 
they  ever  would  rouse  themselves  to  the  onerous  and 
tedious  undertaking  of  creating  a  "Balkania ;"  although 
they  might,  by  force  of  their  superior  natural  endow- 
ments, become  in  such  a  federation  the  dominant  and 
most  vital  race. 

But  perhaps  the  influence  of  the  Greeks  has  been 
greater  on  subsequent  humanity  than  has  been  the  influ- 
ence of  any  known  state.  It  is  infinitely  nobler  to  be 
Hellenic  than  it  is  to  be  imperial.  And  although  their 
future  preponderance  in  this  Balkanland  is  far  from 
being  an  evident  certainty,  nevertheless  their  past 
beneficence  and  usefulness  have  been  so  great  that  we 
can  never  lose  our  admiration  for  them. 

This  present  series  of  articles,  selected  from  essays 
devoted  to  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  occupies  itself  exclu- 
sively with  the  Hellenes.  These  essays  present,  in  a 
loosely  correlated  way,  all  kinds  of  information  con- 
nected with  the  long  life  of  a  portion  of  the  Greek 
nation,  chiefly  of  that  portion  which  inhabited  or  still 
inhabits  the  cities  and  provinces  that  now  constitute  the 
commonwealth  of  Greece  or  Hellas. 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS" 

On  the  JEgean  shore  a  city  stands, 

Built  nobly,  pure  the  air  and  light  the  soil; 

Athens  the  eye  of  Greece. 

The  men  of  ancient  Athens  have  exercised  an  incal- 
culable influence  over  humanity.  They  have  fixed 
certain  norms  of  culture  which  the  world  in  its  best 
periods  has  ever  since  been  striving  to  admire  and  to 
apply.  It  may  be  true  that  we  do  not  always  know 
how  great  is  our  indebtedness  to  the  thinkers  and  doers 
of  Athens ;  we  may  even  willingly  ignore  it.  The  fact 
nevertheless  stands,  that  the  debt  exists,  a  fact  which, 
when  properly  understood,  honors  both  us  and  the  old 
Athenians. 

Athens  possessed  the  good  fortune  of  not  owning 
some  of  the  qualities  that  are  often  thought  to  be  neces- 
sary for  a  great  and  influential  city.  Athens  was  not 
the  leading  city  of  an  extensive  state.  It  was  not  the 
center  and  mistress  of  a  wide  empire,  as  was  Rome. 
Indeed,  being  purely  a  Hellenic  city  with  Hellenic  cul- 
ture, it  could  not  well  have  been  the  seat  of  an  imperial 
government;  for  the  ancient  Hellenes  were  entirely 
incapable  of  appreciating  the  usefulness  of  vast  empire. 
Therefore,  although  Athens  was  the  greatest  center 
and  most  influential  city  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  it  was 
never  the  political  seat  of  government  over  an  exten- 
sive country ;  it  did  not  bear  to  Greece  the  relations  of 
a  capital  to  a  state. 

Athens  was  not  the  head  and  directress  of  a  state, 

S 


6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

but  was  rather  the  whole  state  in  its  entirety.  Accord- 
ing to  Aristotle,  a  state  should  not  be  much  larger  than 
the  area  included  within  the  radius  of  a  herald's  voice, 
when,  shouting  from  the  citadel,  he  calls  the  citizens 
to  assemble  for  consultation  regarding  common  inter- 
ests. This  definition  quite  well  suits  the  state  of  ancient 
Athens.  It  is  true  indeed  that  a  crier's  voice  from  the 
ramparts  of  the  Akropolis  cannot  be  heard  over  all 
the  territory  that  was  included  within  the  common- 
wealth of  the  Athenians  nor  even  over  a  fiftieth  part 
of  it.  But  still  this  territory  was  so  small  that  a  citizen 
who  dwelt  in  the  very  remotest  corner  of  the  land,  on 
Sounion's  rocky  steep,  or  beyond  Marathon  in  Oropos 
or  Rhamnous,  could  walk  to  Athens  easily  in  the  space 
between  sunrise  and  sunset.  Such  was  the  extent  of 
the  peninsula  of  Attika,  in  which  Athens  was  situated. 
Politically,  Athens  and  Attika  were  identical.  The 
Athenians  did  not  cease  to  be  citizens  of  Athens  by 
dwelling  not  within  the  walls  of  the  town  but  in  the 
villages  and  villas  that  were  in  the  midst  of  the  sur- 
rounding fields  and  groves.  No  portion  of  Attika 
is  so  remote  as  to  be  invisible  from  the  citadel  of 
Athens,  were  it  not  that  the  near  intervening  mountains 
intercept  the  view. 

The  notions  which  prevailed  among  the  Athenians 
regarding  the  value  of  each  individual  citizen  and  his 
inherent  rights  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  under- 
stand a  larger  extent  of  their  republic.  Only  once  did 
they  somewhat  successfully  try  to  establish  a  kind  of 
empire,  by  attempting  to  hold  the  islands  of  the 
^Egean  subjugate  and  tribute-bound.  But  the  attempt 
was  soon  a  failure,  although  the  empire  appeared  under 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  7 

the  form  of  a  republican  confederacy,  and  had  as  its 
purpose  the  laudable  intention  of  keeping  all  Asiatic 
aggressors  away  from  all  Greek  lands.  According 
to  the  better  Athenian  conception,  a  state  was  imper- 
fect in  so  far  as  any  one  citizen  suffered.  This  was 
Solon's  doctrine,  perhaps,  and  Solon  may  be  regarded 
as  the  law-making  intellect  of  his  contemporaries,  the 
Athenians  of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  It  easily 
follows  from  this  doctrine  that  the  state  and  the  citi- 
zen are  two  parties  that  meet  each  other  on  absolutely 
equal  terms.  By  pressing  these  old  doctrines  to  their 
full  conclusions  it  would  follow  that  the  state  is 
maimed  if  one  member,  one  single  individual,  one  citi- 
zen, is  hurt.  To  try  to  have  a  perfect  state  wherein 
one  citizen  might  legally  suffer  political  wrong  would 
be  exactly  the  same,  from  a  logical  standpoint,  as 
would  be  the  attempt  to  metamorphose  the  number 
ninety-nine  into  one  hundred.  The  old  Athenians  did 
not  perhaps  express  these  conclusions,  but  they  felt 
them,  and  were  influenced  by  them. 

With  these  notions  of  what  a  state  is,  and  what  the 
relations  of  each  citizen  to  the  united  body  of  citizens, 
which  was  the  state,  it  was  impossible  that  the  state 
extend  itself  over  a  wide  stretch  of  territory.  No  citi- 
zen could  be  subject  to  the  state;  he  could  be  nothing 
less  than  an  integral  member  of  the  state.  He  there- 
fore had  to  reside  near  to  where  the  head  of  the  state 
showed  itself,  and  where  all  legislation  took  place.  It 
was  impossible  that  any  numerous  set  of  officials  inter- 
vene between  him  and  the  rest  of  the  state,  between 
him  and  the  other  citizens.  The  state  was  constituted 
of  him  plus  the  other  citizens,  and  he  could  not  be 


8  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

separated  from  the  others  by  any  great  separation, 
even  of  place. 

Another  reason  why  the  Athenian  commonwealth 
was  always  of  narrow  extent  was  the  Greek's  indiffer- 
ence as  to  the  fate  of  those  who  were  not  in  some 
special  way  associated  with  him  or  related  to  him. 
This  fact  is  true  for  the  modern  Hellenes  as  well  as  for 
their  classic  forefathers.  If  a  Greek  saw  his  own  people 
happy,  he  would  not  be  much  concerned  about  the 
possible  fate  or  sufferings  of  the  Persians  or  the  Ibe- 
rians. At  least  his  interest  in  strangers  often  exhausts 
itself  with  theoretical  views  and  is  not  put  into  act. 
This  explains  why  the  Greeks  have  never  intentionally 
been  persistent  propagators  of  their  doctrines  in  dis- 
tant climes,  but  however  are  stern  defenders  of  such 
doctrines  at  home,  and  resent  all  ideas  of  foreign 
propagandism.  Their  indifference  as  to  the  affairs  of 
others,  be  it  a  virtue  or  be  it  a  vice,  contributed  to 
make  the  Athenians  unfit  for  the  founding  of  an 
empire. 

Athens,  therefore,  was  not  the  capital  of  a  great 
commonwealth.  It  was  itself  a  commonwealth, 
although,  if  we  were  to  admit  that  the  size  and  impor- 
tance of  a  commonwealth  is  measured  by  the  extent 
of  its  lands,  then  we  should  have  to  admit  also  that  this 
commonwealth  of  Athens  was  a  very  diminutive  and 
insignificant  one. 

But  Athens,  without  having  the  burdens  which 
molest  the  capital  of  a  wide  country,  nevertheless  had 
much  of  the  advantages  of  such  a  capital.  Just  as  in 
past  years,  Paris  has  been  the  city  that  in  many  respects 
moved  and  enlivened  and  inspired  all  Europe,  so  was 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  9 

Athens  the  city  which  was  pre-eminent  among  all  the 
cities  of  the  Greeks.  Nevertheless,  the  old  Greeks  were 
not  subjects  of  the  Athenian  government  any  more 
than  the  Europeans  of  yesterday  were  necessarily  sub- 
jects to  the  government  which  resided  in  Paris.  There 
exists  a  higher  kind  of  pre-eminence  than  that  of  gov- 
ernment. This  higher  pre-eminence  was  the  one  which 
Athens  enjoyed  among  the  peoples  of  the  Greek-lands. 

Athens  did  not  excel  in  everything.  It  had  its 
specialties.  Our  notion  of  that  city  makes  it  to  have 
been  most  highly  pre-eminent  in  the  arts  and  in  the 
sciences,  and  in  matters  of  culture  generally.  In  so  far 
as  Athens  can  be  noted  for  its  political  science  and 
capability,  the  trend  of  its  virtues  is  evident  from  what 
has  above  been  stated ;  it  was  able  to  give  to  each  and 
every  unenslaved  individual  an  amount  of  well- 
regulated  freedom  that  no  large  state  can  easily  fur- 
nish to  its  citizens.  Many  of  the  laws  which  were  first 
formulated  by  its  legislators  passed  over  to  Rome  and 
from  Rome  they  were  propagated  throughout  the 
whole  of  Europe.  Thus  were  created  the  legal  codes 
that  still  regulate  our  pubic  lives. 

There  were  other  varieties  of  highly  developed  civil- 
ization that  flourished  previously  to  the  Hellenic,  or 
contemporaneously  with  it.  But  these  civilizations 
have  all  vanished  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Hebraic,  they  have  had  but  little 
direct  influence  on  us.  The  Greek  civilization  never 
died  out.  It  merely  underwent  various  modifications, 
adapting  itself  to  the  various  nations  of  Europe  which 
adopted  it.  We  are  therefore  at  this  present  day  more 
or  less  all  of  us  Hellenic.  That  we  have  wonderfully 


10  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

developed  certain  ideas  and  principles,  which  in  the 
flourishing  days  of  old  Athens  were  still  almost  embry- 
onic, does  not  militate  against  this  truth.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  claim  that  the  ancient  Greeks  or  more 
especially  the  Athenians  were  in  any  way  our  superiors. 
We  have  merely  asserted  that  they  were  our  intellectual 
and  scientific  forefathers  and  teachers.  As  their  spirit- 
ual children  and  pupils  we  may  have  gloriously  sur- 
passed them.  At  least  we  know  that  we  have  not  kept 
all  of  their  teaching  just  where  they  left  it.  Inability 
.to  develop  and  increase  our  inheritance  would  mean 
that  we  are  unworthy  to  be  either  their  children  or 
their  pupils.  We  seem  in  many  lines  of  thought  and 
action  to  have  made  great  advances. 

If  we  are  all  more  or  less  Hellenic,  then  it  is  not 
stretching  words  too  far  to  say  that  we  are  all  more  or 
less  Athenian.  For  Athens  was  the  center  from  which 
most  generously  and  bounteously  was  given  forth  the 
Hellenic  light  which  has  enlightened  us. 

Being  Athenians  in  some  way  or  other,  and  being 
in  some  way  Hellenic,  it  is  always  alluring  to  us  to 
know  something  about  our  spiritual  forefathers.  It  is 
also  interesting  to  know  something  about  this  charmed 
city,  this  city  of  the  soul,  where  once  lived  and  moved 
these  men  who  bequeathed  to  us  our  treasure  of  cul- 
ture. But  we  cannot  understand  the  attractions  of  these 
places  nor  undergo  the  purifying  influence  of  these 
surroundings  unless  our  soul  is  akin  to  higher  ideas 
and  higher  actions.  Those  whose  footsteps  climb  to 
the  mossy  rim  of  Hippokrene  receive  no  monetary 
remuneration.  If  a  man  has  been  taught  by  degrading 
circumstances  to  think  and  believe  proportionately  to 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  1 1 

the  pay  which  he  receives  therefor  he  should  never 
hope  to  dwell  under  Grecian  skies.  Hellenism  is  not  a 
matter  of  wealth  or  authority.  A  wood-chopper  from 
the  western  part  of  our  great  wide  country  who  came 
to  Athens  for  a  consul's  salary  could  see  nothing  in 
Athens  of  today  nor  feel  the  mysterious  throbbings  of 
her  historic  existence.  To  him  Athens  was  the  most 
deceitful  and  despicable  land  on  the  circle  of  the  globe. 
If  one  has  no  affinity  to  Hellenism  and  to  the  spirit 
of  old  Athens,  he  had  better  never  enter  the  blue  waters 
around  this  land  nor  step  on  her  time-worn  shores. 

Although  Athens  appears  at  the  head  of  Hellenism 
in  the  ages  that  have  influenced  later  civilization,  this 
city  was  not  always  the  first  in  the  land.  Hellenic  cul- 
ture was  very  widely  diffused  and  very  much  varie- 
gated. Before  the  formation  of  the  Roman  empire, 
there  were  times  at  which  Hellenism  flourished  in  a 
large  part  of  Asia  Minor,  in  a  portion  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula,  in  Egypt,  in  Sicily,  in  Southern  Italy.  The 
Ionic  civilization  of  Asia  Minor  was  not  the  same  in 
detail  as  was  the  civilization  of  the  Peloponnesos  or 
that  of  the  ^Egean  Isles  or  that  of  Attika.  Athens 
therefore  never  had  the  monopoly  of  Hellenism,  and 
there  were  epochs  of  Hellenism  when  other  cities  were 
more  important  than  Athens. 

Athens  is  a  very  old  city.  No  records  tell  of  its 
first  founding.  The  only  book  in  whose  pages  we  can 
read  the  earliest  history  of  this  city  is  the  succession 
of  strata  formed  by  the  debris  which  grew  higher  and 
higher,  as  generations  of  inhabitants  succeeded  each 
other.  Our  knowledge  of  ancient  myths  may  serve  us 
well  in  reading  and  interpreting  this  book  of  the  strata. 


12  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

From  these  sources  it  is  proven  that  Athens  and  its 
territory  of  Attika  were  inhabited,  and  possessed 
various  arts  and  handicrafts  away  back  in  the 
Mykenseic  ages,  perhaps  as  remotely  as  the  third  mil- 
lennium before  Christ.  But  of  its  importance  in  those 
days  little  is  positive;  and  the  probability  is  that  other 
cities  like  Mykenae  or  Knosos  or  Ilion  outranked  it  both 
in  civilization  and  in  wealth.  The  greatness  of  Athens, 
as  we  know  it,  began  not  long  before  the  Medic  wars. 
It  was  these  wars  that  suddenly  elevated  Athens  to 
the  eminence  to  which  she  had  gradually  been 
approaching.  When  these  wars  were  over,  or  more 
exactly,  after  the  three  eventful  victories  of  Marathon 
and  Salamis  and  Plataea  had  been  won,  Athens  found 
herself  respected,  vigorous,  and  ambitious.  Iktinos, 
Kallikrates,  and  other  such  builders  began  to  construct 
the  wonders  of  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Korinthiac  architec- 
ture. Pheidias  and  his  school  and  rivals  put  them- 
selves to  the  task  of  chiseling  out  of  Pentelic  and 
Parian  stone  the  most  perfect  works  that  ever  have 
come  from  sculptors'  hands.  Victorious  army-leaders 
were  transformed  into  inspired  orators  and  guided  the 
turbulent  wisdom  of  the  public  assemblies.  ^Eschylos 
and  Sophokles  and  Evripides  produced  their  inimitable 
tragedies  before  audiences  sitting  in  the  open  air  on 
the  slopes  of  the  hill  of  the  citadel.  Sokrates  took  up 
the  nascent  science  of  philosophy  and  prepared  the  way 
for  the  two  greatest  ^theorists  of  the  Hellenic  world, 
Platon  the  poetic  idealist  and  Aristotle  the  logician, 
sage,  and  scientist.  Athenian  fleets  defended  the 
Greek  cities  of  the  sea.  Athenian  armies  compelled 
all  rival  Greek  cities  on  the  mainland  to  acknowledge 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  13 

the  dignity  and  eminence  of  the  Attic  commonwealth. 

But  it  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Greeks 
were  never  united  into  one  state.  They  never,  in  their 
best  days,  cared  to  form  any  kind  of  general  confed- 
eration, not  even  for  mutual  defense  against  foreign 
enemies.  It  was  with  great  difficulty  and  partly  by 
accident  that  a  powerful  but  exceedingly  short-lived 
combination  was  made  against  the  invading  Persians 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century.  Love  of  local 
autonomy  may  perhaps  sometimes  have  its  faults.  It 
usually  prevented  the  Greeks  from  consolidating  them- 
selves against  common  dangers.  But  it  led  them  still 
farther.  They  were  constantly  involved  in  petty  wars 
against  each  other.  The  greatest  of  these  wars  was 
the  one  which  began  about  four  hundred  and  thirty 
years  before  Christ.  The  chief  belligerents  then  were 
the  Athenians  and  the  Spartans.  This  war  lasted, 
with  intermissions,  near  on  to  twenty-seven  years. 
When  it  closed  Athens  was  defeated  and  irreparably 
humiliated.  From  that  time  her  decline  began. 

Her  days  of  decline,  however,  were  by  no  means 
inglorious.  Arts  and  sciences  still  flourished.  Her 
patriots  were  as  enthusiastic  as  ever,  but  they  had 
become  accustomed  to  exhibit  their  patriotism  more 
by  rhetoric  and  display  than  by  self-sacrificing  deeds. 
A  new  enemy  arose.  At  least  so  thought  many  Athe- 
nians and  other  Greeks.  This  enemy  was  Philip  of 
Makedon. 

Philip  of  Makedon  was  not  a  foreigner.  He  was 
not  a  barbarian.  Genuine  Greek  blood  coursed  in  his 
hot  veins.  The  repugnance  felt  by  the  Athenians  and 
other  Greeks  against  Philip  was  not  based  on  the  pre- 


14  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

sumption  that  he  was  of  a  different  nationality.  They 
hated  him  because  he  was  an  imperialist,  and  what 
was  worse  an  imperialist  who  wished  to  place  the 
center  of  Hellenism  outside  the  borders  of  the  little 
country  where  Athens  and  Sparta  and  Thebes  and 
Argos  had  so  long  been  accustomed  to  hold  their 
autonomous  sway.  Philip  conceived  the  great  idea  of 
uniting  all  the  Greeks  under  the  government  of  one 
mighty  state.  That  was  what  the  purer  Greeks  could 
not  understand.  With  them  the  highest  idea  of  gov- 
ernment was  that  which  gave  autonomy  to  each 
important  city.  In  their  most  quarrelsome  days  the 
Athenians  had  never  thought  of  reducing  the  Spartans 
and  the  Korinthians  and  the  Argives  and  the  Thebans 
to  autocratic  subjection.  Nor  had  even  the  rude- 
minded  Spartans  ever  seriously  concocted  such  a  plan 
against  the  other  Greeks.  Philip's  ambition  therefore 
brought  into  Hellenism  an  idea  that  hitherto  had  been 
almost  unknown. 

The  most  determined  enemies  of  the  Makedonians 
were  the  men  of  Athens.  They,  inspired  by  the  elo- 
quence of  Demosthenes,  worked  hard  not  to  lose  their 
autonomous  freedom.  But  the  danger  was  greater 
than  they  had  foreseen.  On  the  fateful  field  of  Chaero- 
neia,  they  were  defeated  along  with  their  Theban 
allies ;  and  the  purer  Greek  principle  of  regarding  each 
city  as  a  state  had  seen  its  last  day.  It  is  true,  indeed, 
that  by  the  policy  of  Philip  and  of  his  son  Alexander 
the  local  government  of  Athens  as  well  as  of  every 
other  populous  Hellenic  city  was  allowed  to  remain 
almost  intact.  But  still  from  that  time  on,  from  the 
days  of  the  Makedonic  conquest,  Athens  was  merely 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  15 

a  city  in  an  empire.  Her  spirit  was  broken.  She  was 
no  longer  high  master  of  herself  and  her  fortunes. 

But  what  is  remarkable,  the  fall  of  Athens  as  an 
autonomous  state  marks  the  extension  of  her  human- 
izing influence  to  a  wider  world.  Alexander  was  not 
content  with  establishing  himself  emperor  of  such 
countries  exclusively  as  were  inhabited  by  the  Greeks. 
He  desired  to  become  military  master  of  the  entire 
world.  But  most  of  all  he  desired  as  a  Greek,  to 
humble  the  traditional  enemies  of  Hellenism,  the  Per- 
sians. He  invaded  their  kingdom.  He  became  lord 
of  all  the  countries  of  Asia  Minor  and  of  Asia  to  far 
beyond  the  Euphrates.  Syria  and  Egypt  and  North 
Africa  also  acknowledged  him.  After  his  death  this 
limitless  Makedonian  conquest  was  divided  into  a  num- 
ber of  kingdoms,  under  the  sway  of  Makedonian 
princes.  Greek  civilization  was  everywhere  dissemi- 
nated. The  world  became  Hellenic.  That  was  the 
great  beginning  of  the  propagating  of  an  undying 
culture  among  non-Hellenic  nations.  But  the  peculiar 
type  of  Hellenism  which  was  diffused  was  that  which 
had  grown  to  ripeness  at  Athens.  Athenian  letters  and 
arts  and  sciences  and  rhetoric  were  taught  in  every  city 
from  Babylon  to  Dyrrachion  and  from  the  regions 
around  the  Danube  to  the  confines  of  Abyssinia. 
Athens,  the  city  which  no  longer  possessed  her  cher- 
ished independence,  had  conquered  the  minds  and  souls 
of  the  most  important  races  of  mankind. 

Alexander  bore  a  deep  love  toward  Athens.  It  was 
a  special  delight  of  his  to  announce  to  the  proud  men 
of  that  city  the  successive  tidings  of  his  numerous 
victories.  But  after  he  had  made  his  conquests  and 


l6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

began  to  plan  the  formation  of  a  mighty  state,  he 
could  not  for  a  single  moment  seriously  think  of  mak- 
ing Athens  the  capital  of  his  empire.  Nature  has  not 
given  to  Athens  a  site  proper  for  a  purpose  so  banal. 
This  is  a  truth  which  the  men  who  today  direct  the 
fate  of  regenerated  Hellas  have  not  thought  of,  or  at 
least  have  not  appreciated.  So  long  as  Athens  continues 
to  be  the  seat  of  government  for  the  present  kingdom 
of  Greece,  especially  with  the  centralizing  methods  in 
vogue  there,  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  Greeks  of 
today  to  realize  their  just  hopes  of  seeing  their  country 
extend  itself  as,  by  tradition,  it  has  a  right  to  do. 
Peoples  who  live  north  of  Olympos  and  the  Ambrakiot 
Gulf  might  gladly  desire  to  be  "Greeks"  and  put  them- 
selves under  Greek  sway.  But  they  cannot  logically  be 
drawn  to  enthusiastically  desire  to  become  subjects  of  a 
city  situated  at  one  of  the  extreme  limits  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula.  If  the  Greeks  of  today  were  more  wise  in 
the  wisdom  of  this  world,  the  capital  of  this  kingdom 
would  now  be  north  of  the  Othrys  Mountains,  at  least. 
But  the  modern  Greeks,  like  their  ancestors,  are  not  an 
empire-making  people. 

As  a  result  of  Alexander's  conquests,  other  centers 
of  academic  as  well  as  political  Hellenism  were  estab- 
lished. Athens  was  too  far  away  from  many  of  the 
most  populous  countries  of  the  empire,  and  could  not 
directly  answer  all  the  needs  of  education  and  cul- 
ture. Accordingly,  new  musal  foundations  were  estab- 
lished which  rivaled  the  source  from  which  they  drew 
their  inspiration.  Alexandreia  and  Pergamos  became 
as  learned  as  Athens.  Later,  when  all  the  countries 
inhabited  by  Greeks  had  been  conquered  by  the  cosmo- 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  17 

politan  soldiers  of  Rome,  then  a  new  center  was  added 
— the  imperial  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  In  one 
sense  Rome  never  became  so  thoroughly  Hellenic  as 
did  Alexandreia  and  Pergamos,  but  in  another  sense 
she  even  surpassed  these  earlier  rivals.  The  Latinism 
of  the  Roman  republic  wedded  itself  to  the  Hellenism 
of  the  Alexandreian  period,  and  thus  was  generated 
the  Romanism  of  the  imperial  times,  which  prevailed 
from  Augustus,  and  yet  earlier,  down  to  Constantine 
and  his  successors. 

Athens,  however,  still  continued  to  attract  scholars. 
Not  only  from  the  countries  of  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt 
but  even  from  Italy  itself  numerous  were  the  young 
men  who  went  to  the  schools  of  the  Athenians  to  finish 
their  preparation  for  the  turbulent  and  strenuous  life 
of  the  Roman  empire.  The  victorious  Sulla,  although 
he  plundered  and  pillaged  and  murdered  in  other  parts 
of  Greece,  ostentatiously  spared  the  citizens  of  Athens 
after  they  had  angered  and  worried  him  by  stubbornly 
resisting  his  besieging  army.  He  refrained  from  his 
usual  cruelties  "out  of  respect  for  the  illustrious  past" 
of  that  city.  Caesar  and  Octavius,  as  well  as  Horace 
and  the  poets  and  orators,  looked  to  Greece  and  Athens 
for  models  and  instructors. 

But  the  fated  days  came,  and  Athens,  save  by  her 
memories,  ceased  to  attract  the  world.  Under  Roman 
sway  she  gradually  dwindled  in  importance.  She 
finally  came  to  be  nothing  but  a  noted  provincial  city 
in  a  boundless  empire.  From  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ  the  Roman  empire  exhibited  a  tendency  to  cleave 
itself  into  two  parts.  Under  Diocletian  this  division 
actually  took  place.  The  empire  was  to  have  two  sec- 


i8  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

tions,  and  two  emperors.  But  in  the  course  of  time 
only  one  of  the  sections  survived.  It  was  the  eastern 
half  that  was  destined  to  be  the  most  tenacious  of  life, 
because  it  continued  to  be  the  more  thoroughly 
Roman.  This  eastern  half,  after  the  destruction  of  the 
western  section  by  Odovakar's  barbarians,  became  an 
independent  Roman  empire.  It  was  Greek,  or  at  least 
Hellenistic,  in  everything  save  name  and  government. 
This  was  the  famous  kingdom  of  Byzantion.  Under 
Byzantiac  rule,  the  seat  of  government  was  in  Con- 
stantine's  city  on  the  Bosporos.  Athens  continued  to 
be  merely  a  provincial  town.  It  was  rarely  heard  of, 
but  yet  it  was  not  dead.  Its  schools  still  flourished. 
The  chairs  of  philosophy  and  rhetoric  were  still  occu- 
pied by  eminent  men.  Plotinos  and  Proklos  and  a  host 
of  others  added  glory  to  the  wonderful  light  of  this 
setting  sun.  Saints  of  the  church  went  thither  to  learn 
the  wisdom  that  ever  since  Sokrates'  days  had  not 
ceased  to  be  heard  in  the  agora,  and  in  the  groves  of 
Akadem,  and  along  the  banks  of  the  Ilisos.  But  its 
very  vitality  occasioned  its  final  fall.  Proklos  was  not 
able  to  give  protection  to  the  goddess  of  the  Parthe- 
non who  sought  an  asylum  in  his  hut.  The  haughty 
teachers  in  the  city  on  the  Bosporos  could  not  brook 
the  fact  that  so  many  scholars  sought  the  quiet  shores 
of  Attika.  The  schools  of  Constantinople  envied  the 
hoary  establishments  of  Athena's  beloved  abode. 
Finally  there  reigned  an  emperor  who  issued  a  decree 
that  the  philosophers'  schools  of  Attika  should  cease 
to  exist.  The  heart-broken  professors  of  the  tra- 
ditional teachings  of  Platon  and  Aristotle  wandered 
off  and  disappeared  among  the  cities  of  Asia.  Athens 


"MOTHER  OF  ARTS"  19 

had  finished  her  ancient  work.  This  was  in  the 
year  529. 

After  that  time  the  city  passed  through  many 
ordeals.  It  grew  smaller.  In  the  thirteenth  century  it 
became  a  Prankish  stronghold,  and  was  governed  by 
the  feudal  laws  of  western  Europe.  Then  came  the 
Turks,  and  Mahomet  added  Athens  to  his  dominions. 

But  when  the  Greeks  after  a  frightful  struggle 
regained  their  independence  in  the  last  century,  they 
quickly  resolved  to  place  their  new  capital  at  Athens. 
This  was  an  honor  which,  in  all  her  long  and  varied 
history,  had  never  before  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Athens, 
to  be  the  capital  of  a  state.  From  a  political  point  of 
view  this  was  a  serious  mistake.  But  yet  it  was  an 
honor  to  the  historic  city,  even  though  she  never  be 
destined  to  rule  over  a  wide  extent  of  territory. 

The  fame  of  Athens  is  independent  of  its  future 
success  as  a  capital.  Her  fame  is  in  the  fact  that  she 
has  been  a  light  and  teacher  to  the  world.  Her  doc- 
trines in  their  influence  on  mankind  are  inferior  only 
to  those  of  the  Christians.  Athens  will  never  cease  to 
stand  a  beacon  light  for  progress,  a  perpetual  guide 
for  us  in  the  evolution  and  perfecting  of  that  civiliza- 
tion which  we  have  inherited  from  her. 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS 

Ages  of  adverse  fortune  have  dealt  mercilessly  with 
the  Akropolis  of  Athens,  but  have  not  dimmed  the 
splendor  of  its  fame.  This  venerable  rock,  which  was 
the  pride  of  the  Greeks  in  the  ancient  days  of  Perikles, 
is  yet  a  Mecca  to  those  who  worship  art  and  civiliza- 
tion. One  may  indeed  be  so  forgetful  of  history  as 
to  have  no  sympathy  for  the  modern  descendants  of 
the  classic  Hellenes,  but  never  can  the  sage  or  the 
civilizer  cease  to  love  the  Akropolis. 

The  first  light  of  history  that  illumines  the  origins 
of  social  life  in  Attika  falls  upon  the  Akropolis.  Here 
it  was  that  the  mythic  king  Kekrops  built  a  new 
seat  of  government,  a  new  city,  which  was  called 
"Kekropia."  Whether  he  was  a  foreigner  or  a  native 
of  Attika  is  not  to  be  learned.  Ordinary  history  begins 
only  after  the  invention  of  the  art  of  keeping  written 
records.  And  this  invention  came  long  after  Kekrops. 
Story  and  myth,  however,  have  kept  enough  about  him 
to  assure  us  that  he  belongs  to  the  class  of  men  who 
do  much  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  mankind.  In 
fact,  since  he  stands  at  the  beginning  of  Athenian 
history,  he  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
our  present  type  of  civilization.  His  city,  however, 
did  not  continue  to  be  called  after  him.  Myths  narrate 
that  the  honor  of  being  the  tutelary  deity  of  Athens 
was  a  matter  of  serious  contention  between  the  god  of 
the  sea,  Poseidon,  and  the  deity  of  wisdom  and 
progress,  Athena;  and  Athena,  in  order  to  predict  that 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  21 

she  would  be  a  useful  patroness  to  the  new  city,  caused 
an  olive  tree  to  sprout  up  miraculously  on  the  top  of 
the  Akropolis.  The  umpires,  who  were  the  other 
Olympian  gods,  judging  that  the  cultivation  of  the 
olive  was  commendable  in  Attika,  awarded  to  Athena 
the  tutelage  of  the  new  town.  And  thus  it  came  to 
pass  that,  in  honor  of  its  guardian  deity,  the  city  was, 
in  historical  times,  called  not  Kekropia,  but  Athens. 

Of  the  town  of  Athens,  the  citadel  or  Akropolis, 
which  was  the  original  settlement,  always  remained  the 
most  important  and  most  holy  part.  The  exact  site 
where  the  mythic  contest  was  thought  to  have  taken 
place  beween  the  two  gods  was,  perhaps,  one  of  the 
most  sacred  spots  which  the  religion  of  the  Athenians 
knew.  The  olive  tree  which  Athena  was  credited  with 
having  so  miraculously  planted,  was  piously  cared  for 
throughout  all  the  ages.  It  never,  however,  grew 
into  the  large  gnarled  and  beautiful  proportions  of  the 
magnificent  trees  that  one  sees  in  the  groves  north  of 
Athens,  near  the  locality  of  the  mystic  gardens  of 
Platon.  It  was  a  stunted  little  shrub,  as  we  are  sorry 
to  learn  from  Hesychios.  But  nevertheless  it  con- 
tained the  miraculous  innate  vigor  of  a  deity's  handi- 
work. For  not  only  were  all  the  olive  trees  of  Attika 
propagated  from  it,  but,  moreover,  when  it  was  burned 
in  the  conflagration  which  laid  the  Akropolis  waste  in 
480  before  Christ  it  again  grew  so  fast  that  in  the  first 
night  after  the  fire  it  had  sprouted  two  ells  high.  The 
sacristans  did  not  keep  a  record  of  its  growth  during 
the  following  nights ;  so  we  do  not  know  how  long 
this  wonder  continued  in  activity.  The  site  near  where 
the  divine  contest  had  occurred,  and  where  the  olive 


22  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

tree  grew,  was  from  primitive  historic  times  decorated 
with  altars  and  other  signs  of  the  sacredness  of  the 
place.  But  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ  these  old  landmarks  gave  way  to  a  new  magnifi- 
cent temple,  whose  ruins  still  stand,  and  are  known  as 
the  Erechtheion.  Since  several  gods  had  been  wor- 
shiped on  this  site,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  for  all 
of  them  in  the  new  building,  and  to  make  the  temple 
a  multiplex  one,  so  that  each  of  these  gods  might  have 
a  nook  therein,  and  a  shrine.  Accordingly,  the  Erech- 
theion was  constructed  on  an  intricate  plan,  and  has 
been  always  a  puzzle  to  the  archaeological  investigator. 
He  has  not  yet  finally  determined  upon  what  deities 
were  worshiped  in  the  several  apartments  of  this 
curious  temple,  and  where  each  one  had  his  shrine. 
As  an  artistic  architectural  composition,  however,  it  is 
a  masterpiece,  not  only  in  its  simple  Ionic  beauty  of 
design,  but  in  the  delicacy  and  accuracy  with  which  the 
various  details  have  been  chiseled  out.  Ionic  archi- 
tecture has  produced  nothing  finer  than  the  north  door 
of  this  temple.  And  a  small  portico  on  the  south  side 
is  remarkable  from  the  fact  that  the  columns  which 
support  the  architrave  have  been  carved  into  the  shape 
of  comely  but  muscular  maidens  called  "karyatids." 
They  are  well  preserved,  considering  that  they  have 
been  standing  here  in  rain  and  sunshine  for  more  than 
twenty-four  hundred  years.  One  of  them  was  carried 
off  to  England  in  1803  by  the  much-abused  Lord  Elgin, 
and  now  stands  in  the  British  Museum.  Her  original 
place  is  occupied  among  her  sister  karyatids  by  a 
facsimile  in  plaster. 

This   fire  which   burned   Athena's  olive  tree  and 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  23 

destroyed  so  many  monuments  on  the  Akropolis  has 
indirectly  rendered  a  service  to  those  who  study  the 
history  of  art.  For  after  the  Persian  soldiers  of 
Xerxes,  who  had  taken  possession  of  Athens  and  given 
the  Akropolis  to  the  flames,  had  fled  in  disorder  back 
to  Asia,  the  Athenians,  who  were  thankful  and  proud 
for  their  two  decisive  victories  at  Salamis  and  Plataea, 
immediately  set  about  rebuilding  the  burned  and  black- 
ened shrines.  To  make  a  beginning,  they  collected  all 
the  statues  that  had  been  injured  by  the  fire,  or  by  the 
sacrilegious  hands  of  the  Asiatic  soldiery,  and  threw 
them  into  the  hollow  places  on  the  top  of  the  citadel, 
and  buried  them  with  a  deep  covering  of  soil,  in  order 
thus  to  make  the  top  of  the  hill  more  level.  These 
numerous  examples  of  "pre-Persian"  statuary  were 
exhumed,  and  fortunately  discovered  to  be  yet  in  a 
satisfactory  state  of  preservation  when  in  1887  the 
entire  top  of  the  Akropolis  was  excavated.  And  as 
we  know  when  these  pieces  of  sculpture  were  buried, 
we  have  a  datum  which  assists  us  in  determining  the 
art-epoch  to  which  they  belong ;  for  the  year  480  before 
Christ  must  be  more  recent  than  the  statuary  in  ques- 
tion. These  finds  are  now  kept  in  a  museum  on  the 
top  of  the  Akropolis,  built  expressly  for  such  treasures 
as  have  come  to  light  within  the  walls  of  the  citadel. 

The  Akropolis  is  an  isolated  mass  of  natural  rock 
standing  five  hundred  and  twelve  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea,  which  is  only  about  three  miles  distant,  and 
separated  from  it  by  a  level  portion  of  the  Attic  plain. 
The  top  of  the  rock  is  a  small  plateau,  oval  in  shape, 
about  three  hundred  and  thirty  yards  long  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  wide.  It  rises  about  two  hundred 


24  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

feet  above  the  average  level  of  the  modern  city  of 
Athens,  which  lies  round  its  base.  The  top  of  the  hill 
has  ever  since  prehistoric  ages  been  surrounded  by  a 
wall,  which,  until  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  made 
the  Akropolis  an  important  and  almost  impregnable 
stronghold.  This  wall  has  been  repaired,  or  rebuilt, 
over  and  over  again,  in  order  to  remove  the  damages 
done  by  sieges  and  by  time.  As  it  now  stands,  it  con- 
tains portions  built  at  least  twenty-five  hundred  years 
ago,  and  other  portions  built  as  late  as  during  the  last 
century.  Fragments  of  old  pre-Hellenic  or  Pelasgic 
wall  can  be  seen;  sections  of  the  hasty  wall  stealthily 
built  by  Themistokles  in  spite  of  the  jealous  protest  of 
Sparta,  shortly  after  the  departure  of  the  Persians  in 
479  before  Christ;  additions  made  by  the  Prankish 
dukes  of  Athens,  in  the  thirteenth  century  of  our  era; 
later  repairs  by  Greeks  and  Moslems  and  Europeans, 
all  can  be  distinctly  recognized. 

The  surface  of  the  top  of  the  citadel  was  in  ancient 
times  covered  with  votive  offerings,  and  commemora- 
tive inscriptions,  and  altars  to  the  numerous  deities, 
and  statues,  and  temples,  in  every  available  space.  It 
was  not  only  a  precinct  of  holy  shrines,  but  also  a 
museum  of  art,  and  a  place  where  the  most  precious 
archives  of  state  and  of  religious  and  public  life  were 
kept,  engraved  on  slabs  of  marble. 

Near  the  entrance  to  the  Akropolis,  to  the  right  of 
the  steps  that  lead  up  to  the  Propylaea,  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  gems  of  Ionic  architecture  in  existence. 
It  is  a  small  temple  dedicated  to  Wingless  Victory,  or 
rather,  to  Athena  designated  as  such.  The  temple  is 
only  about  twenty  feet  high,  and  proportionately  small 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  *5 

in  length  and  breadth.  But  its  diminutiveness  seems 
really  to  add  to  its  beauty.  From  the  bastion  that  sup- 
ports it  the  view  over  the  surrounding  land  and  sea  is 
exceptionally  glorious.  It  was  from  this  point  that 
Byron  looked  out  over  Saron's  gulf  toward  Parnasos 
and  the  Peloponnesos  when  he  was  inspired  to  write 
the  opening  verses  of  the  third  canto  of  The  Corsair. 

In  general  the  quantity  of  statuary  and  inscriptions 
and  other  monuments  preserved  to  us  from  classic 
times  is  really  remarkable.  True  it  is  that  the  portion 
preserved  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  original  quantity ; 
and,  what  is  more  deplorable,  it  is  not  always  the  great 
masterpieces  that  have  escaped  destruction.  Here,  on 
the  Akropolis,  one  can  see  the  bases  of  famous  statues 
mentioned  by  the  ancient  writers,  but  the  statues  them- 
selves are  gone.  Those  that  had  been  covered  up  in 
the  earth  or  in  debris  have  escaped.  From  the  Propy- 
laea  eastward  along  the  top  of  the  citadel  there  are  still 
traces  of  the  route  over  which  the  sacrificial  processions 
and  all  visitors  passed  on  their  way  to  the  highest  point 
and  middle  of  the  Akropolis,  where  stood  the  Parthe- 
non. Either  side  of  this  road  was  lined  with  multitudes 
of  statues  and  other  votive  offerings  and  commemora- 
tive monuments.  Their  places  can  yet  be  recognized 
by  the  chiseled  surfaces  in  the  natural  rock,  where  they 
stood.  Pavsanias,  who  visited  the  Akropolis  in  the 
second  century  of  our  era,  describes  many  of  these 
statues.  With  the  help  of  his  book  we  can  relocate  them 
and  mourn  their  loss.  Many  of  the  inscriptions  have 
been  found.  Some  of  these  refer  to  the  building  of 
the  Erechtheion,  the  Parthenon,  and  the  Propylsea, 
and  give  reliable  information  about  the  way  in  which 


26  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

contracts  were  made  for  the  carving  of  various  por- 
tions of  the  ornaments  of  these  structures,  and  the 
amounts  of  money  paid  to  each  man  for  his  work. 

Conformably  to  the  nature  of  the  old  Greek  religion, 
which  was  polytheistic,  a  large  number  of  deities 
enjoyed  the  worship  of  the  pious.  Each  locality,  how- 
ever, had  certain  local  deities  that  were  preferred,  and 
received  a  more  prominent  worship.  This  variety  of 
deities  often  originated  in  the  fact  that  the  inhabitants 
were  a  conglomeration  of  different  tribes,  and  each 
tribe  had  contributed  to  the  chorus  of  gods  by  intro- 
ducing such  deities  as  were  peculiar  to  the  tribe  before 
it  lost  its  identity  in  the  amalgamation.  On  the  Akropo- 
lis,  in  oldest  times,  the  deities  worshiped  were  chiefly 
Zevs  and  Earth  and  Athena.  One  can  still  read  an 
inscription  cut  upon  the  rock  of  the  Akropolis  just 
north  of  the  Parthenon,  which  reads  "Sacred  to  Gsea 
the  Giver  of  Fruits,"  and  indicates  the  place  where 
stood  an  altar  to  the  goddess  Earth.  To  these  primi- 
tive deities  were  added  imported  ones  later.  Apollon 
and  Poseidon  were  probably  brought  here  by  the  immi- 
grant lonians.  Of  the  three  prominent  original  deities, 
Athena  gradually  became  supreme  on  the  Akropolis. 
To  her  were  several  shrines  sacred.  But  her  chief 
shrine,  from  the  point  of  view  of  art,  was  the  Parthe- 
non, where  she  was  venerated  under  the  special  appel- 
lation of  "the  virgin  goddess."  The  temple  is  so 
perfect  and  so  grand  that  it  alone  would  have  made 
the  Akropolis  famous.  It  is  an  immense  structure,  in 
the  Doric  style  of  architecture,  built  to  serve  both  as 
a  shrine  sacred  to  Athena  and  as  a  treasure-house 
wherein  could  be  kept  valuable  utensils  and  sacred 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  27 

articles  and  money  belonging  to  the  goddess  and  to 
Athens. 

From  inscriptions  which  have  been  preserved  on 
the  Akropolis,  and  from  other  sources  of  information, 
we  conclude  that  the  Parthenon  was  begun  447  years 
before  Christ,  when  Athens  was  in  its  highest  glory 
and  prosperity,  and  when  Perikles  autocratically 
governed  the  state  and  its  affairs.  In  less  than  ten 
years  it  was  completed  sufficiently  to  receive  the  statue 
of  gold  and  ivory  which  Pheidias  had  created  for  it. 
We  learn  that  in  438  before  Christ  the  Athenian 
people  came  for  the  first  time  in  festal  pomp  to  place 
the  new  veil  upon  this  new  masterwork.  After  Athens 
became  a  Christian  city,  the  Parthenon  was  converted 
into  a  church.  Additional  doors  were  cut  through  the 
walls,  and  at  the  eastern  end  a  large  semicircular  apse 
was  built,  so  that  the  altar  might  be  located  therein. 
As  a  Christian  church,  the  Parthenon,  by  a  certain 
unpremeditated  fitness,  was  consecrated  first  to  "Divine 
Wisdom,"  and  later  to  the  Virgin  Mother  of  God. 
Thus  the  noble  virgin  goddess  of  Hellenic  idolatry 
became  the  forerunner  of  the  great  Virgin  of  the 
Christians.  As  a  Christian  church,  it  was  selected  to 
be  the  cathedral  of  the  city,  and  the  bishops  of  Athens 
took  up  their  residence  near  it  on  the  Akropolis,  per- 
haps in  the  Propylsea.  A  valuable  list  of  the  names 
of  these  bishops  has  been  preserved  to  us  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  customary  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  cen- 
turies to  record  their  death  in  graffiti  inscriptions  on 
the  columns  of  the  Parthenon.  These  records  are  still 
legible  to  the  practiced  eye  of  the  epigraphist. 

But  the  Akropolis  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  not 


28  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

merely  a  residence  for  dignitaries  of  church  and  gov- 
ernment, and  the  site  of  the  holiest  temples  of  the  city. 
It  also  served  as  a  stronghold  and  as  barracks  for  the 
soldiers,  for  it  had  reverted  to  its  ancient  condition  of 
fortress.  This  was  unfortunate  for  the  works  of  art. 
In  the  year  1687,  the  Turks,  who  then  were  masters 
of  most  of  Greece,  occupied  Athens,  and  had  a  garri- 
son on  the  Akropolis.  An  invading  army  of  Vene- 
tians, under  the  celebrated  Francesco  Morosini, 
marched  into  Attika,  and  laid  siege  to  the  citadel. 
From  a  deserter,  the  Venetian  engineers  learned  that 
the  Turks  had  stored  their  powder  in  the  Parthenon. 
Accordingly  an  attempt  was  made  to  throw  a  shell  into 
it  in  order  thus  to  destroy  the  enemy's  supply  of 
ammunition.  Unfortunately  the  German  artillery- 
man, who  undertook  to  execute  these  orders,  succeeded 
finally,  and  a  shell,  which  entered  through  the  roof, 
blew  up  the  store  of  powder,  and  converted  the  Parthe- 
non, the  pride  of  Athens,  into  the  magnificent  ruin  it 
now  is.  After  the  deed  was  done,  the  noble  old  Vene- 
tian, Morosini,  wept  over  the  devastation  which  he 
had  felt  forced  to  create.  It  is  more  sad  to  recall  this 
destruction  of  the  Parthenon  from  the  fact  that  the 
mischief  was  all  in  vain,  since  Morosini  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  liberating  the  Athenians  except  for  a  few 
months.  In  the  following  year  his  army  had  to  evacu- 
ate the  Akropolis  and  Athens,  and  the  inhabitants 
again  fell  under  Turkish  control. 

Long  before  this  untoward  event,  the  Parthenon 
had  undergone  two  transformations,  in  addition  to  the 
one  already  mentioned,  of  its  conversion  into  a  Chris- 
tian church.  For  in  the  year  1204,  Athens  became  a 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  29 

portion  of  the  provinces  of  the  crusaders  who  had 
taken  possession  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  and  these 
crusaders  established  the  Latin  rite  in  Athens,  and 
converted  the  Parthenon  into  a  Catholic  cathedral, 
with  a  Latin  archbishop  and  Latin  canons.  While 
under  this  western  control,  the  government  of  Athens 
often  changed  hands,  and  many  were  the  standards  that 
successively  floated  from  the  turrets  of  the  Akropo- 
lis,  French  and  Spanish  and  Italians  taking  their 
turn  in  the  ownership  of  the  city.  But  in  the  year 
1456,  the  Florentine  duke  of  Athens  surrendered  the 
city  to  Mahomet  II,  and  soon  afterward  the  Parthe- 
non was  converted  into  a  Moslem  mosque. 

In  the  war  for  independence  which  began  in  1821, 
in  which  the  Greeks  succeeded  in  throwing  off  the  yoke 
of  Turkish  dominion,  the  Akropolis  was  doomed  to 
suffer  again.  It  is  for  these  successive  reasons  that  all 
the  buildings,  and  notably  the  Parthenon,  are  no  longer 
in  a  state  of  good  preservation,  but  rather  in  one  of 
magnificent  ruin.  Most  strangers  who  visit  Athens 
and  remain  for  any  length  of  time,  take  pains  to  visit 
the  Akropolis  by  moonlight.  Then,  in  the  dimmer  and 
kindlier  light,  the  wreck  of  time  seems  to  make  a 
duller  impression  on  the  senses,  and  only  the  inde- 
scribably soothing  influence  of  the  larger  details  of 
the  monuments  in  their  perfection  is  felt.  Especially 
fortunate  is  the  stranger  who  chances  to  visit  the 
Akropolis  when  illuminated  by  the  soft  but  profuse 
light  of  the  moon  of  August,  for  of  all  the  year,  in 
August  is  the  moon  of  Attika  most  bright. 

When  Alexander  the  Great,  who,  though  a  native 
of  Makedonia,  justly  claimed  to  be  a  Greek  by  blood, 


30  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  therefore  looked  to  Athens  as  to  the  highest  pride 
of  his  nation,  gained  his  first  effective  battle  in  Asia 
on  the  banks  of  the  Granikos,  he  remembered  the 
tutelary  deity  of  the  Akropolis,  and  sent  thirty  suits 
of  armor  to  be  dedicated  to  her  as  votive  offerings. 
From  this  booty,  twenty-six  shields  were  selected  by 
the  Athenians  and  hung  up  on  the  architrave  of  the 
Parthenon.  The  shields  have  long  since  disappeared. 

In  the  year  1854,  the  Greeks,  out  of  gratitude  for 
generous  assistance  rendered  by  America  in  their 
sufferings  during  their  war  for  independence,  selected 
a  block  of  Pentelic  marble  from  the  ruins  of  the  Par- 
thenon, and  after  placing  on  it  a  suitable  inscription 
in  classic  Greek,  written  by  Perikles  Argyropoulos, 
then  a  member  of  King  Otho's  cabinet,  sent  it  to  the 
United  States  to  be  built  into  the  Washington  Monu- 
ment. In  consigning  the  stone  to  the  care  of  Mr.  King, 
the  American  consul  at  Athens,  Mr.  Argyropoulos 
said: 

Greece  has  never  forgotten  the  noble  sympathy  manifested 
toward  her  by  the  American  nation  at  the  time  of  her  revolu- 
tion. Full  of  gratitude  and  of  friendship,  she  has  always 
watched  with  the  deepest  interest  the  wonderful  progress  which 
has  been  in  every  respect  achieved  by  a  people  to  which  she 
feels  attached  by  the  most  indissoluble  ties. 

And  in  his  reply  to  Argyropoulos,  the  secretary  of 
state  at  Washington,  Mr.  Marcy,  wrote : 

The  announcement  of  this  noble  present,  accompanied  as  it 
is  by  tones  of  friendship  so  emphatic  and  so  acceptable,  cannot 
fail  to  be  highly  appreciated  by  the  President  and  people  of  the 
United  States. 

In  antiquity  the  Parthenon  was  not  indeed  the  most 
holy  shrine  on  the  Akropolis;  in  point  of  sanctity  it 


THE  AKROPOLIS  OF  ATHENS  31 

yielded  to  other  sacred  precincts  near  the  Erechtheion. 
But  as  a  work  of  art,  and  as  the  pride  of  the  city,  it 
ranked  first.  Being  sacred  to  the  virgin  Athena,  it 
contained  a  statue  of  this  goddess.  And  like  the 
temple,  the  statue  was  the  most  celebrated  one  in 
Athens,  although  not  the  most  revered.  It  was  the 
handiwork  of  the  master  sculptor  Pheidias  himself, 
and  was  one  of  his  most  famous  creations.  It  was  of 
colossal  size,  being  more  than  forty-five  feet  high.  It 
was  made  entirely  of  gold  and  ivory,  the  drapery  being 
of  gold,  and  the  face,  hands,  and  feet  of  ivory.  To 
guard  against  robbery,  the  gold  was  put  on  in  such  a 
way  as  to  be  removable,  and  thus  it  could  be  weighed 
whenever  such  action  might  be  deemed  necessary,  so 
as  to  discover  any  loss  by  stealing. 

What  the  final  fate  of  the  statue  was,  we  do  not 
know.  It  seems  to  have  remained  safe  in  the  Parthe- 
non for  about  nine  hundred  years.  The  last  mention  of 
it  as  still  being  in  its  original  position  is  made  in  con- 
nection with  the  Platonic  philosopher  Proklos.  Proklos 
came  to  Athens  from  his  native  town  of  Constantinople 
in  about  the  year  430  after  Christ,  and  took  up  his 
residence  near  the  south  side  of  the  Akropolis,  below 
the  Parthenon.  Athens  had  already  become  Christian, 
but  Proklos  continued  to  be  an  enthusiastic  worshiper 
of  the  vanishing  cults.  The  Parthenon  was  still  sacred 
to  its  ancient  deity,  and  the  gold-ivory  statue  still 
remained  unmolested.  But  Zosimos  the  historian  nar- 
rates that  Proklos  had  a  vision  in  which  he  dreamed 
that  Athena,  the  "Lady  of  Athens,"  appeared  to  him 
and  informed  him  that  she  was  about  to  abandon  the 
Akropolis  and  the  Parthenon,  and  requested  him,  as 


32  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

one  of  her  last  worshipers,  to  prepare  his  house  to 
receive  her.  The  manner  in  which  the  dream  is  nar- 
rated supposes  that  the  statue  was  yet  in  the  Parthenon 
when  Proklos  sojourned  in  Athens.  It  may  afterward 
have  been  brought  to  Constantinople,  as  a  later  Byzan- 
tine writer  states.  One  thing  at  least  is  certain,  that 
it  has  surely  not  been  preserved  anywhere.  An  object 
of  so  much  value  in  bare  gold  could  not  survive  the 
numerous  plunderings  which  the  old  civilized  world 
was  subjected  to.  It  is  only  a  wonder  that  so  valuable 
a  work  survived  so  long. 

In  addition  to  the  old  classic  edifices  on  the  Akropo- 
lis  there  was  built  during  the  successive  ages  a 
number  of  Byzantine,  Prankish,  and  Turkish  struc- 
tures, some  of  them  historically  interesting,  and  most 
of  them  picturesque.  But  the  severe  determination  to 
rid  the  Akropolis  of  all  that  does  not  belong  to  classi- 
cal antiquity  has  caused  the  archaeologists  to  tear  down 
all  these  later  buildings.  Whether  this  action  is  justi- 
fiable or  not  is  not  a  decided  question;  but  it  satisfies 
the  demands  of  the  stricter  classicists.  At  any  rate,  the 
Akropolis,  crowned  with  its  ancient  walls,  flanked  with 
the  ruins  of  the  theater  of  Dionysos  and  the  music  hall 
of  Herod,  as  well  as  by  sacred  grots  and  shrines,  and 
by  the  hill  of  Ares  where  the  apostle  Paul  first  spoke 
to  the  Athenians,  with  the  beautiful  city  of  new 
Athens  stretching  out  to  north  and  east  of  it,  and  with 
the  noble  ruins  of  the  grand  Parthenon  standing  on  its 
very  highest  point,  is  a  sight  that  no  man  ever  for- 
gets, and  everyone  desires  to  see  again. 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  OF  TODAY 

The  regenerated  people  of  Greece  have  enjoyed  less 
than  eighty  years  of  independent  existence.  In  1830, 
the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  formally  agreed  to  allow  a 
small  but  considerable  portion  of  the  Hellenes  to  recon- 
struct themselves  into  a  new  state.  Ever  since  that 
year  Greece  has  been  slowly  and  laboriously,  but  at  the 
same  time  steadily  and  continuously,  coming  up  toward 
the  degree  of  culture  which  is  required  for  every  nation 
that  can  claim  to  be  under  the  full  spell  of  "European" 
civilization.  Whoever  wishes  to  know  what  the  modern 
Greeks  have  done  for  education  must  not  only  acquaint 
himself  with  the  present  condition  of  learning  in 
Greece,  but  must  also  note  the  abject  and  degraded 
condition  of  the  country  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  as  Byron,  the  Philhellene,  described 
it,  and  must  observe  the  progress  made  since  that  time. 
The  present  state  of  culture  in  Greece  is  to  be 
measured,  not  by  its  present  excellence  and  defects, 
but  by  its  height  above  the  level  of  culture  which  pre- 
vailed there  during  the  last  period  of  Turkish  rule. 

As  soon  as  the  shackles  of  their  long  slavery  were 
broken,  the  inhabitants  of  Greece  began  to  reassert 
their  ancient  love  for  learning.  Even  while  the  war 
was  still  in  its  highest  fury,  the  bloody  face  of  Bellona 
did  not  effectively  frighten  the  muses  into  the  mute- 
ness of  despair.  Such  of  the  priests  and  old  men  as 
were  unable  to  bear  arms  in  the  holy  struggle,  but  who 
knew  something  of  letters  and  books,  used  to  assemble 

33 


34  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  children  of  the  absent  warriors  into  some  hut 
or  beneath  some  tree,  and  by  most  primitive  methods 
endeavor  to  teach  them  to  read,  using  as  textbooks  the 
Psalms  of  David,  or  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  or  some 
other  liturgical  book  of  the  eastern  church.  Even  the 
venerable  Parthenon,  which  originally  was  built  in 
honor  of  Athena,  the  goddess  of  wisdom,  and  which  in 
the  early  ages  of  Christianity  was  dedicated  to  the 
Holy  Wisdom  of  God,  and  in  later  years  rededicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  received  new  glory  in  the  year 
1824  by  affording  its  noble  shelter  to  a  group  of  little 
girls  who  gathered  there  every  day  to  learn  the  alpha- 
bet from  a  white-haired  man  who  knew  how  to  read. 

Only  seven  years  of  inchoate  and  turbulent  freedom 
had  elapsed  when  the  first  king  of  Greece,  Otho  of 
Bavaria,  saw  that  the  time  had  already  come  for  the 
founding  of  a  school  of  higher  education.  In  the 
spring  of  1837  he  issued  a  royal  decree  declaring  the 
establishment  of  a  Panepistemion  or  university,  and 
naming  the  first  rector  and  deans  and  professors.  The 
king  and  his  advisers  looked  to  Germany  for  light  and 
guidance.  Accordingly,  the  Panepistemion  of  Athens 
has  been  constituted  conformably  to  German  notions 
about  universities.  There  are  four  chief  schools  and 
four  faculties,  of  theology,  law,  medicine,  and  phi- 
losophy. Each  faculty,  under  the  presidency  of  the 
dean,  constitutes  an  independent  teaching  body.  The 
common  weal  of  the  university  is  directed  by  the  rector, 
who  is  guided  by  the  senate.  Rectors,  senators,  and 
deans  are  elected  from  among  the  professors. 

In  this  same  year  of  1837,  the  new  university  began 
to  fulfil  its  mission.  On  the  fifteenth  of  May  the 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  35 

solemn  rites  of  inauguration  took  place.  The  enthu- 
siastic king  was  present  with  all  the  members  of  his 
cabinet.  The  bishop  of  Attika  chanted  the  appropriate 
prayers  and  blessed  the  momentous  undertaking. 
Proud  tears  of  hopeful  joy  escaped  from  Otho's  eyes. 
The  rector  and  each  of  the  four  deans  addressed  appro- 
priate words  to  the  assembled  multitudes.  The  first 
regular  lecture  took  place  in  the  following  week.  It 
was  given  by  Professor  Ludwig  Ross.  He  spoke  about 
the  Acharnians  of  Aristophanes. 

When  the  university  was  founded  there  existed  in 
Athens  no  suitable  building  in  which  it  could  be  housed. 
A  structure  which  had  originally  been  erected  as  a  pri- 
vate dwelling,  but  which  had  been  turned  into  a  gym- 
nasion  or  high  school,  was  selected  as  the  most 
available  and  commodious  home  for  the  reassembling 
of  the  muses'  votaries.  Within  the  narrow  walls  of  this 
building,  "the  House  of  Kleanthes,"  as  it  was  called, 
professors  and  students  faithfully  did  their  work  until 
November  of  1841,  when  one  wing  of  the  present 
magnificent  university  buildings  was  completed,  and 
the  lectures  began  to  be  given  in  it. 

The  number  of  students  at  the  Panepistemion  stead- 
ily increased  from  fifty-two,  who  enrolled  their  names 
in  1837,  up  to  three  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-eight,  who  matriculated  in  the  scholastic  year 
of  1891-92.  This  last  number  is  not  very  large  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  students  came  not  only  from  free 
Greece,  but  from  all  parts  of  the  East,  where  people 
of  Greek  religion  and  traditions  still  dwell.  Since 
1892,  however,  the  number  of  students  has  decreased 
slightly,  owing  chiefly  to  the  political  disturbances  and 


36  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

poverty  that  have  been  harassing  this  part  of  the  world. 
For  a  population  of  about  seven  millions  of  Greeks 
scattered  throughout  these  countries  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, four  thousand  students  would  not  be  a  dispro- 
portionately large  number. 

The  language  of-  students  and  professors  in  the 
Panepistemion  is  always  exclusively  Greek.  This  fact 
might  profitably  be  borne  in  mind  by  all  those  histo- 
rians and  philologians  and  other  scholars  throughout 
the  world  who  have  assumed  the  heavy  task  of  being 
willing  to  be  regarded  as  authorities  in  matters  relat- 
ing to  the  language  of  Greece.  Of  course  versatility 
in  a  language  does  not  constitute  scientific  scholarship. 
Few  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  Athens  in  the  age  of 
Perikles  were  scientific  scholars,  although  they  under- 
stood Greek  wonderfully  well.  Nevertheless,  the  pro- 
fessional Hellenist,  who,  along  with  his  scientific 
training  and  habits,  possesses  as  an  additional  accom- 
plishment such  familiarity  with  the  actual  use  of  the 
Greek  language  as  is  acquired  by  two  or  three  years  of 
complementary  study  at  Athens,  will  find  his  labor 
sweetened,  and  the  intrinsic  difficulties  of  his  science 
greatly  lessened.  This  truth  would  be  more  easily 
understood  abroad  if  the  Greeks  themselves  were  first 
thoroughly  to  understand  it,  and  were  to  aim  at  making 
their  Panepistemion  unique  among  the  universities  of 
the  world  as  a  seat  of  such  sciences  as  are  thoroughly 
Hellenic  and  philological.  Every  university,  while  re- 
fusing its  fostering  care  to  no  science  whatsoever,  may 
nevertheless  have  exceptional  love  and  solicitude  for 
some  special  branch  of  learning,  yielding  to  the  dictates 
of  circumstances. 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  37 

Most  of  the  foreigners  who  come  to  Athens  for  the 
sake  of  study  devote  their  time  to  some  branch  of 
archaeological  inquiry.  And  costly  institutions  are 
maintained  here  by  various  foreign  governments  or  by 
antiquarian  societies,  for  the  benefit  and  assistance  of 
such  as  desire  to  pursue  archaeological  investigations 
on  the  soil  of  Greece.  Among  these  foreign  institu- 
tions is  the  American  School  of  Classical  Studies,  sup- 
ported by  the  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  and 
by  the  more  prominent  universities  of  America.  At 
this  school,  every  scholar  from  the  United  States  may 
be  sure  of  a  cordial  welcome.  Like  the  other  foreign 
scientific  institutes  at  Athens,  the  American  school  is 
occupied  chiefly  with  archaeological  work.  But  at  the 
same  time  instruction  and  guidance  is  given  to  philo- 
logians  by  a  professor  annually  sent  out  from  America. 

It  would  not  be  an  easy  task  to  try  to  name  the  most 
noted  professors  and  assistant  professors  in  the  facul- 
ties of  the  Panepistemion.  Many  of  them  have  attracted 
reverent  attention  in  Europe.  In  the  philological 
branches,  which  concern  us  most  at  present  because  of 
their  close  connection  with  trains  of  thought  that  are 
more  peculiarly  Greek,  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to 
mention,  as  an  eminent  authority  on  Attic  forms  of  the 
Greek  language,  the  late  Konstantinos  Kontos,  who 
for  more  than  thirty  years  was  busy  as  a  conscientious 
teacher  and  writer,  and  who  has  added  entire  stores  of 
newly  discovered  facts  to  the  already  known  gram- 
matical, syntactical,  and  lexicological  lore  of  Greek 
philology.  His  native  home  was  Amphissa,  near  the 
western  slopes  of  Parnasos  and  but  a  few  miles  dis- 
tant from  Apollon's  ancient  shrine  at  Delphi. 


38  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

A  living  scholar  of  wide  fame  is  Georgios  Chatzi- 
dakis,  who  came  to  the  Panepistemion  from  the  island 
of  Krete.  He  has  consecrated  his  energies  to  the 
investigation  of  the  history  of  the  Greek  language 
from  its  first  formation  down  to  the  present  time.  His 
special  study  is  glossology,  or  comparative  grammar, 
and  he  examines  the  linguistic  remains  of  the  Greek 
language  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  modern  glossolo- 
gist.  Like  most  men  who  are  good,  he  adds  patriotism 
to  his  other  virtues,  and  when  a  few  years  ago  Krete 
was  in  trouble  with  Turkey,  he  went  down  to  his  native 
island  to  bear  his  share  in  the  dangers  of  the  struggle. 

Attached  to  the  university,  and  intended  for  the  use 
of  the  professors  and  students,  are  various  laboratories 
and  scientific  collections.  One  of  the  most  curious  and 
interesting  of  these  collections  is  a  series  of  Greek 
skulls  which  have  been  found  in  graves  of  different 
epochs.  Some  of  these  skulls  are  very  old.  Others  of 
them  were  found  in  the  tumulus  at  Chaeroneia  and  are 
from  the  bodies  of  the  warriors  who  fell  fighting  the 
last  battle  for  ancient  Greek  freedom  against  Philip  of 
Makedon.  Others  are  from  the  Middle  Ages,  or  from 
modern  times.  The  scientific  value  of  this  collection 
is  very  great.  It  will  probably  be  of  much  use  in  prac- 
tically answering  the  difficult  questions  concerning  the 
origin  of  the  tribes  which  occupied  Greece  at  the  dawn 
of  the  historical  period.  It  will  also  serve  to  show  the 
true  relationship  between  the  Greeks  of  today  and 
those  of  past  centuries. 

Next  in  prominence  to  the  Panepistemion,  and  equal 
in  importance  perhaps,  is  the  Polytechnic  Institute. 
The  fine  arts  and  the  applied  sciences  are  cultivated 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  39 

here.  In  the  school  of  applied  science  are  taught 
chemistry,  physics,  mineralogy,  geology,  mechanology, 
mechanics,  higher  mathematics,  architecture,  and  other 
kindred  topics.  In  the  school  of  fine  arts,  courses  in 
drawing,  painting,  and  sculpture  are  given.  Broutos, 
several  of  whose  works  are  in  the  United  States,  is 
professor  of  sculpture.  Some  of  his  creations  are  very 
beautiful. 

Since  the  church  is  such  an  essential  part  of  Greek 
life,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  the  Greeks  would  be 
solicitous  for  the  proper  and  thorough  education  of 
their  clergy.  But  the  monetary  resources  which  the 
church  of  Greece  has  at  her  disposal  are  not  sufficient 
to  meet  the  expenses  of  higher  education  for  all  priests. 
The  only  purely  ecclesiastical  institution  of  higher 
learning  within  the  free  kingdom  is  the  "Rizareion 
School."  This  is  a  seminary  where  candidates  for  the 
priesthood  may  pursue  courses  of  classical  and  philo- 
sophical and  rubrical  studies  for  four  years,  and  then 
a  course  in  the  first  elements  of  theology  for  one  year. 
Those  who  desire  to  enter  more  deeply  into  the  study 
of  theology  must  go  to  the  university.  The  school, 
both  in  matters  of  discipline  and  of  general  manage- 
ment, resembles  the  Catholic  seminaries  of  Europe.  It 
was  founded  and  is  sustained  by  a  bequest  of  money 
and  property  left  for  this  purpose  by  two  natives  of 
Epeiros,  Georgios  and  Manthos  Rizares.  The  semi- 
narists live  in  community  life.  They  study  in  common 
halls,  take  their  meals  in  a  common  dining-hall,  and 
sleep  in  common  dormitories.  No  student  may  go 
beyond  the  bounds  of  the  institution  without  having 
personal  permission  to  do  so.  All  wear  robes  of  the 


40  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

same  pattern — a  stiff,  round,  black  cap  with  a  flat 
top,  a  black  loose  cassock  held  neatly  by  a  blue  girdle, 
and  a  loose,  long  black  coat  with  flowing  sleeves,  worn 
over  the  cassock. 

For  more  than  fifteen  years  an  important  school, 
known  as  the  Leonteion,  has  been  in  existence  in 
Athens.  It  was  founded  by  the  late  pope,  Leo  XIII, 
and  has  served  as  a  collegiate  school  for  the  children  of 
Catholic  parents  in  Athens.  Lately,  however,  Rome, 
in  her  unceasing  solicitude  for  the  Christians  of  the 
East,  has  determined  to  raise  the  status  of  the  school, 
and  to  annex  to  it  a  general  ecclesiastical  seminary 
for  the  education  of  priests  for  all  the  Greek  countries 
of  the  East.  It  has  hitherto  been  the  custom  for  the 
Catholics  of  Greece  to  educate  the  most  and  best  of 
their  priests  in  Europe,  most  commonly  in  the  Propa- 
ganda at  Rome.  There  existed  indeed  small  seminaries 
at  Syros  and  Naxos  and  Tenos,  and  elsewhere  in 
Greece.  But  these  schools  usually  had  but  one  or  two 
professors  and  eight  or  ten  students.  It  is  therefore 
quite  clear  that  Rome  is  acting  wisely  in  establishing 
one  important  school  to  take  the  place  of  these  anti- 
quated makeshifts,  and  is  also  wise  in  selecting  Athens 
as  the  site  for  this  general  school. 

This  hasty  sketch  of  the  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing in  Athens  is  not  put  forward  as  a  satisfactory 
picture  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  modern  Greeks. 
The  picture  would  be  more  complete  if  several  other 
institutions  received  the  honorable  mention  which  they 
deserve.  If  it  were  my  desire  to  give  an  exhaustive 
description  of  the  condition  of  higher  education  in 
Greece,  then  no  atoning  reason  could  be  adduced  which 


HIGHER  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE  41 

would  excuse  me  for  having  omitted  all  reference  to 
such  institutions  as  the  Conservatory  of  Music,  the 
libraries,  the  laboratories  one  by  one,  the  museums, 
the  Arsakeion  Academy  for  girls,  the  different  literary 
and  scientific  societies,  the  astronomical  observatory, 
the  naval  and  military  schools,  and  the  gymnasia  or 
colleges. 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY 

The  fact  that  literature  records  the  thought  of  a 
limited  class  of  people,  and  in  certain  past  ages  of  a 
very  small  class,  has  led  the  investigator  to  seek  other 
sources  of  information  concerning  the  opinions  held 
by  ancient  peoples  about  the  manifold  conditions 
and  vicissitudes  of  life.  In  architectural  and  artistic 
monuments  he  likewise  finds  an  imperfect  witness ;  for 
these  monuments,  when  they  date  from  ages  of  slavery 
and  inequality,  have  been  erected  by  a  limited  class  of 
the  people — a  class  somewhat  more  extensive  than  the 
literary  one,  but  yet  only  a  small  proportion  of  the 
whole  community.  But  makers  of  monuments  are 
much  more  conservative  than  are  writers.  And  by 
observing  the  monuments  we  frequently  find  views  and 
ideas  expressed  that  are  nearer  to  the  ordinary  man 
than  are  those  found  in  the  ancient  books. 

Large  cemeteries,  rich  in  noble  sepulchral  monu- 
ments, have  been  discovered  in  other  parts  of  the  old 
Greek  world,  as  in  Asia  Minor  and  in  Sicily  and  at 
Mykenae.  But  the  one  of  greatest  interest  for  the 
present  discussion  is  the  Kerameikos  cemetery  at 
Athens,  just  outside  of  the  ancient  western  gates  of 
the  city,  on  the  road  from  the  Peirseevs.  Here  the 
monuments  are  both  numerous  and  beautiful ;  and  those 
that  still  remain  in  their  ancient  site  are  supplemented 
by  the  numerous  specimens  that  have  been  gathered 
into  the  great  National  Museum  of  Athens.  The  sur- 
vival of  so  much  of  this  old  Kerameikos  cemetery  in  its 

42 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY  43 

pristine  shape,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  had  been  deeply 
buried  and  hidden  by  accumulated  debris  and  earth. 
Indeed,  the  opinion  has  often  been  expressed  that  at 
some  unknown  time  a  good  portion  of  it  was  intention- 
ally covered  up  by  an  artificial  mound  of  earth.  A 
French  savant,  Charles  Lenormant,  has  thought  that 
the  Roman  general,  Sulla,  who  eighty-six  years  before 
Christ  stormed  the  walls  of  Athens  exactly  at  this 
point,  must  have  caused  the  earth  to  be  piled  up  here 
in  order  that  from  its  top  his  soldiers  might  scale  the 
city  wall.  There  is  however  no  proof  to  be  found  for 
this  ingenuous  but  gratuitous  assertion. 

In  this  Kerameikos  cemetery  the  Athenians  used  to 
bury  both  private  citizens  and  public  men.  The  monu- 
ments erected  by  the  state  to  mark  the  graves  of  the 
public  men,  especially  of  those  who  had  lost  their  lives 
in  celebrated  battles  in  defense  of  their  country,  were 
costly  and  magnificent.  Unfortunately  these  stood  in  a 
place  not  included  within  the  area  that  had  been  safely 
covered  by  the  mound  of  debris,  and  probably  most  of 
them  have  perished.  There  are  preserved,  however,  a 
few  private  monuments  erected  to  brave  men  who  died 
in  arms.  One  of  these,  now  kept  in  the  museum,  is 
that  of  Aristonavtes,  a  hoplite  soldier  from  the  suburb 
called  Halae,  who  is  represented  as  in  the  act  of  char- 
ging against  the  foe.  It  is  characteristic  of  all  Greek 
sepulchral  art  that  when  the  deceased  is  represented  on 
the  tombstone  he  is  rarely  portrayed  in  unpleasant  or 
inglorious  circumstances.  In  the  entire  great  collec- 
tion in  the  museum  of  Athens  there  are  only  one  or 
two  monuments  on  which  a  person  is  shown  as  being 
in  the  painful  moments  of  dying.  Often  family  sur- 


44  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

roundings  or  other  sacred  or  characteristic  circum- 
stances of  past  life  on  this  earth,  are  idealized  and 
portrayed.  The  monuments,  when  visited  by  the 
friends  of  the  departed,  recall  happy  memories,  sober 
and  sweet  recollections,  rather  than  inconsolable  sor- 
row. Many  of  these  representations  may  correctly 
enough  be  called  portraits,  but  the  sculptor  made  no 
attempt  accurately  to  individualize  the  features  of  the 
persons  represented.  Indeed,  the  ancient  Greek  artists 
never  learned  to  individualize. 

When  the  form  of  the  departed  person  is  sculptured 
on  the  tombstone  he  is  often  represented  in  company 
with  relations  who  have  outlived  him.  He  is  usually 
placed  in  the  position  of  honor,  sitting  down,  while  the 
others  stand.  The  deceased  is  very  often  represented 
as  holding  the  hand  of  one  of  the  other  persons  por- 
trayed. This  attitude  shows  the  love  which  bound  the 
members  of  the  family  together.  It  explicitly  recalls 
neither  the  pain  of  departure  nor  the  joy  of  expected 
reunion.  Nevertheless  there  was  a  certain  reference 
to  the  future,  and  to  the  continuance  of  this  love  of 
parent  or  wife  or  sister  in  the  after-life.  According 
to  the  conception  then  in  vogue,  the  entire  monument 
stood,  not  for  the  body,  but  for  the  soul,  which  was  to 
live  on  in  some  way  or  other. 

Vague  were  the  notions  which  the  Athenians  had 
about  the  soul,  and  vague  were  the  conceptions  which 
they  formed  as  to  its  future  life.  That  the  soul  was  a 
kind  of  airy  double  of  the  corporeal  man  which  con- 
tinued to  live  in  a  dreamlike  existence  after  the  body 
had  died,  that  it  was  a  kind  of  living  shadow  or 
umbra  of  the  body,  and  that  it  was  a  spiritual  existence 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY  45 

similar  to  what  Christianity  has  conceived  the  soul  to 
be,  were  successive  views  which  prevailed  at  different 
times.  But  the  last-named  doctrine  never  became  the 
property  of  the  common  people  in  olden  days.  It  was 
confined  to  certain  schools  of  philosophers  and  their 
disciples.  The  surviving  part  of  man  after  death,  the 
umbra,  was  honored  by  the  monument  placed  over  the 
grave,  while  the  grave  itself  was  destined  for  the  body. 
After  the  burial  of  the  body  certain  honors  were  paid 
to  the  monument  as  to  the  representative  of  the  umbra. 
These  honors  consisted  in  certain  rites  performed  at 
the  grave  or  at  the  monument  on  the  third  and  ninth 
and  thirtieth  days  after  the  funeral,  and  subsequently 
at  the  monument  on  the  anniversary  of  the  death  for 
an  indefinite  number  of  years. 

There  have  been  found  in  graves  of  the  Kerameikos 
a  number  of  beautiful  vases,  called  "lekythoi,"  made 
of  white  pipeclay,  with  illustrations  on  them  in  dark 
colors;  and  most  of  these  illustrations  are  scenes  con- 
nected with  funerals  and  funereal  rites,  so  that  from 
these  vases  we  learn  much  about  what  took  place  on 
such  occasions.  On  many  of  them  are  depicted  scenes 
in  which  the  relations  of  the  deceased  are  adorning 
the  monument  on  these  memorial  days.  On  these  occa- 
sions they  often  brought  to  the  grave  various  small 
household  objects  that  had  been  dear  to  the  deceased 
while  on  earth,  and  left  them  near  the  tomb.  This 
practice  gave  rise  to  a  beautiful  story,  which,  if  not 
entirely  true,  is  probably  not  wholly  unfounded.  In 
the  winter  a  young  girl  had  died  in  Korinth.  Some 
time  afterward  her  maid  gathered  together  various 
trinkets  and  playthings  which  the  girl  had  loved,  and 


46  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

brought  them  to  the  girl's  grave.  There  she  placed 
them  in  a  basket  near  the  monument,  and  placed  a  large 
square  tile  upon  the  basket  to  prevent  the  wind  from 
overturning  it.  It  happened  that  under  the  basket  was 
the  root  of  an  acanthus  plant.  When  spring  came  the 
acanthus  sprouted;  but  its  shoots  were  not  able  to 
pierce  the  basket  and  accordingly  they  grew  around  it, 
having  the  basket  in  their  midst.  Such  of  the  long 
leaves  as  grew  up  against  the  four  protruding  corners 
of  the  tile  on  the  top  of  the  basket  curled  round  under 
these  corners  and  formed  pretty  volutes.  Kallimachos, 
the  sculptor,  walking  that  way  one  day,  saw  this,  and 
immediately  conceived  the  notion  that  the  form  of  the 
basket  with  the  plaque  on  top  of  it,  and  surrounded  by 
the  leaves  and  stalks  of  acanthus,  would  be  a  comely 
heading  for  columns  in  architecture.  From  this  idea 
he  formed  the  beautiful  Korinthiac  style  of  capital. 
Such,  at  least,  is  the  story  as  the  architect  Vitruvius 
told  it. 

Just  as  the  notions  of  the  Greeks  about  the  soul 
really  were  very  hazy,  so  also  were  those  concerning 
its  abiding-place  after  leaving  the  body,  and  the  mode 
of  its  existence.  The  common  opinion  was  that  the 
country  of  the  umbras,  the  gloomy  world  over  which 
the  unfriendly  Plouton  and  his  consort,  the  mysterious 
Persephone,  swayed  the  scepter,  was  somewhere  below 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  therefore  they  called 
it  the  "under  world."  The  guide  to  this  region  was 
Hermes,  the  "soul-escorter,"  as  he  was  called,  who 
led  the  umbras  down  through  the  meadows  of  asphodel 
until  they  came  to  the  river  Acheron,  where  the  ferry- 
man Charon  stood  ready  to  carry  them  over  to  Erebos, 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY  47 

or  the  "dark  country."  It  was  in  many  parts  of  Greece 
customary  to  place  a  coin  in  the  mouth  of  the  corpse, 
so  that  the  umbra  might  have  the  means  of  paying  the 
ferryman,  and  thus  avoid  becoming  forever  a  wanderer 
in  the  marshes  on  the  murky  shores  of  the  Acheron. 
After  crossing  the  river,  the  umbra  came  to  the  gates 
of  Persephone's  kingdom,  where  stood  the  triple- 
headed  watchdog  Kerberos,  who  never  prevented  any- 
one from  going  in,  but  never  let  anyone  out. 

Although  certain  rites,  developed  and  established 
by  long  custom,  were  performed  at  the  tomb,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  these  rites  were  conducted  with  such 
mechanical  and  undeviating  sameness  on  every  occa- 
sion as  to  constitute  an  accepted  and  obligatory  funereal 
ritual.  Nor  is  it  clear  that  any  fixed  formulas  of 
prayer  or  even  any  impromptu  supplications  were  said 
or  recited  on  such  occasions.  Literature  has  not  re- 
corded such  prayers,  and  none  are  preserved  in  the 
inscriptions  on  the  sepulchers  or  on  the  white  funereal 
lekythoi. 

On  the  day  of  the  funeral  the  friends  brought  and 
put  into  the  grave  various  gifts  for  the  deceased — 
vases  filled  with  precious  unguents  and  perfumes,  terra- 
cotta figurines  representing  gods  or  mortals,  lumps  of 
baked  clay  in  the  form  of  loaves  of  bread,  and  some- 
times much  more  valuable  articles.  The  clay  gods  may 
sometimes  have  been  amulets;  the  figurines  represent- 
ing human  beings  were  simply  mementos;  and  the 
terracotta  loaves  of  bread  were  a  ritualistic  survival 
of  the  more  ancient  custom  of  placing  real  food  in  the 
grave  or  near  it  for  the  needs  of  the  departed.  In 
earlier  tombs  we  find  that  it  was  customary  to  place  in 


48  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  graves  of  heroes  and  wealthy  chiefs  costly  articles 
of  bronze  and  silver  and  gold.  Such,  for  instance, 
were  the  rich  treasures  found  by  Schliemann  in  the 
tombs  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Argos  at  Mykenae. 

Among  the  vases  which  archaeologists  now  find  in 
the  tombs  of  Attika,  a  frequent  type  is  the  lekythos 
already  mentioned.  Similar  vases  were  placed  at  the 
grave  on  the  various  occasions  on  which  the  relatives 
visited  the  tomb  after  the  funeral.  Larger  vases  were 
sometimes  set  upright  over  the  graves,  to  stay  there 
till  the  permanent  monument  of  stone  could  be  pre- 
pared. This  practice  occasioned  the  idea  of  making 
marble  gravestones  in  the  graceful  shape  of  these 
vases.  Accordingly  there  stood  in  the  Kerameikos 
cemetery  a  number  of  monuments  shaped  like  a  leky- 
thos, and  others  shaped  like  a  still  larger  vase  or  water 
jar — the  so-called  "loutrophoros."  The  loutrophoros 
was  a  large  earthenware  jar,  which,  according  to  old 
Athenian  marriage  customs,  was  always  needed  in  the 
preparations  that  immediately  preceded  the  nuptial 
ceremonies.  In  this  loutrophoros  water  was  brought 
from  some  favorite  fountain,  and  with  this  water  the 
virgins  bathed  and  prepared  their  toilet  for  the  wed- 
ding. If,  however,  a  young  man  or  woman  happened 
to  die  without  being  married,  and  without  leaving  a 
name  and  personality  to  posterity — a  calamity  which 
among  the  Greeks,  just  as  among  many  other  ancient 
peoples,  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  that  could 
befall  a  mortal — then  a  loutrophoros  vase  which  had 
been  destined  to  hold  water  for  a  nuptial  toilet  was 
sorrowfully  carried  to  the  grave  of  the  unmarried 
dead,  and  placed  upright  upon  it  as  a  monument.  So 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY  49 

strong  and  so  constant  was  this  custom  of  marking 
the  graves  of  unmarried  young  people  with  the  loutro- 
phoros  vase  that  often  the  marble  monument  later 
erected  had  a  loutrophoros  vase  sculptured  on  it,  or, 
in  accordance  with  the  artistic  idea  referred  to,  the 
monument  was  itself  modeled  into  the  shape  of  a 
loutrophoros. 

The  Athenians  were  at  one  time  lavish  of  ex- 
pense in  their  sepulchral  monuments.  Some  of  these 
memorials  to  the  dead  were  very  beautiful;  but  their 
beauty  was  always  genuinely  Greek,  simple  and  chaste. 
The  monument  of  Hegeso  is  an  example.  It  is 
thought  to  be  one  of  the  best  pieces  of  sepulchral 
sculpture  ever  made.  But  yet  it  is  probable  that  if  we 
possessed  all  the  monuments  of  the  Kerameikos  we 
should  have  many  another  sculptured  group  equally 
excellent.  Hegeso' s  monument  was  made  at  about  the 
time  when  the  Athenians  began  in  their  high  pride  of 
success  the  long  and  disastrous  war  against  Sparta, 
which,  after  nearly  thirty  years'  duration,  ended  in 
humiliation.  It  shows  a  style  of  art  and  technique  that 
has  become  familiar  to  connoisseurs  through  the  cele- 
brated Parthenon  sculptures.  Hegeso  is  represented 
as  a  seated  lady;  before  her  stands  her  maid,  holding 
a  toilet-box  or  a  jewel-case;  from  this,  Hegeso  has 
taken  a  ring  or  a  brooch,  or  some  other  precious  ob- 
ject, which  she  holds  in  her  hand  and  looks  at.  She 
is  clothed  in  a  fine  Ionic  chiton,  her  maid  in  a  simpler 
dress.  The  whole  representation  is  in  the  pure  beauty 
of  noblest  Greek  art. 

In  consequence  of  the  prodigal  propensity  to  erect 
expensive  works  of  art  as  tombs,  the  state  finally  de- 


50  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

cided  to  interfere,  and  a  law  was  passed  forbidding 
such  sumptuous  monuments.  Nothing  was  allowed 
more  costly  than  a  simple  column  three  ells  high,  or  a 
flat  slab,  or  a  marble  monument  in  the  shape  of  a  vase. 
No  monument  was  permitted  that  could  not  be  con- 
structed by  ten  men  within  three  days. 

Along  with  the  belief  in  some  kind  of  immortality, 
the  Greeks  gradually  formed  clear  and  positive  notions 
about  rewards  and  punishments  in  the  next  world. 
This  belief,  at  least  in  an  undetermined  way,  was  as 
old  as  Homer,  and  older.  But  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
belief  more  stress  was  placed  upon  the  fact  that  the 
wicked  run  the  risk  of  being  cruelly  punished  than 
that  the  good  and  virtuous  have  a  respectable  chance 
of  being  rewarded.  For  any  indication  of  a  belief  that 
the  after-life  is  one  of  joy  and  pleasure  for  such  as  had 
been  virtuous  on  earth,  one  must  pass  on  to  a  time  at 
least  two  or  three  centuries  later  than  the  Homeric 
poems. 

It  was  in  the  mysterious  rites  performed  at  Elevsis 
in  honor  of  the  earth-goddess  Demeter  and  her  daugh- 
ter Persephone  that  a  more  elevating  and  worthy 
doctrine  of  future  rewards  for  the  good  was  clearly 
and  positively  promulgated.  But  a  natural  result  of 
the  teachings  at  Elevsis  was  that  ritualistic  sanctity 
was  deemed  absolutely  necessary,  while  natural  virtue 
and  uprightness  might  be  of  no  avail.  According  to 
this  teaching  it  was  necessary  to  be  "initiated"  in  the 
mysteries  or  to  be  attached  in  some  special  way  and  by 
special  rites  to  some  deity,  in  order  to  insure  bliss 
after  death.  This  gave  occasion  to  the  cynic  Diogenes 
to  complain  that  the  noble  Epameinondas  would  have 


AN  ATHENIAN  CEMETERY  51 

to  take  a  place  among  the  neglected  spirits  because  he 
had  never  been  initiated  while  on  earth,  but  that  the 
thief  Panaktion  would  have  a  very  happy  time  because 
he  had  taken  care  to  be  initiated. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE 

Many  of  the  earliest  and  readiest  to  accept  the 
first  teachings  of  Christianity  were  from  among  the 
Greeks.  In  the  New  Testament,  and  especially  in  the 
Pauline  epistles,  Greek  names  are  common  for  the 
primitive  converts  to  the  new  belief;  and  names  are 
often  indicative  of  nationality.  Most  of  these,  how- 
ever, received  the  new  light  not  in  their  patrial  country, 
but  as  foreigners  in  Rome  and  Asia  and  Makedonia. 
But  even  the  very  core  of  Hellenism  was  reached  by 
the  gospel.  Paul  came  into  Greece.  At  Athens  he 
preached  the  new  religion,  and,  while  he  and  his 
hearers  could  gaze  upon  the  Doric  and  Ionic  temples 
of  the  Akropolis,  announced  to  the  lolling  Epicureans 
and  ascetic  Stoics  that  he  was  the  messenger  of  a  God 
whose  abode  was  not  in  temples  made  by  hands.  How 
the  gentle  philosophers  must  have  smiled  as  they  heard 
his  words  of  depreciation,  and  looked  proudly  up  at 
the  great  citadel  and  its  glory.  But  nevertheless  Paul 
gained  followers  for  Christ  even  at  Athens.  Continu- 
ing his  work  in  Greece,  the  apostle  went  to  Korinth, 
the  residence  of  the  proconsul,  the  representative  of 
the  Roman  empire,  to  which  all  Greece  then  belonged. 
At  Korinth  he  established  a  community  of  believing 
converts,  which  for  centuries  remained  the  chief  church 
in  the  province  of  Achaia,  as  Greece  then  was  called. 

The  Christianity  of  the  first  three  centuries  was  ex- 
ceedingly fertile  in  literature.  But  nearly  all  of  these 
writings  have  unaccountably  perished.  This  vast  loss 

52 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE  53 

is  one  of  the  saddest  in  all  history.  Perhaps  it  is  on 
account  of  the  destruction  of  early  Christian  literature 
that  we  know  nothing  certain  about  such  men  as 
Dionysios  of  Athens.  Greece  furnished  a  number  of 
leading  men  to  the  primitive  church.  Misty  traditions 
have  preserved  their  names  and  occasionally  some  of 
their  deeds.  Anakletos  and  Hygeinos,  two  of  the  early 
popes,  are  said  to  have  been  Athenians.  Aristeides, 
who,  as  far  as  we  know,  wrote  the  first  Apology  for 
Christianity,  was  a  converted  Athenian  philosopher. 
This  Apology  he  wrote  and  presented  to  Hadrian, 
hoping  to  obtain  the  emperor's  favor  for  the  Christians. 
Paganism  was  very  tenacious  of  life.  It  was  stead- 
fastly cherished  and  defended  by  the  priests  of  the 
ancient  cults,  by  the  schools  of  Athens,  and  by  those 
who  had  been  initiated  into  the  Elevsinian  and  other 
mystic  rites.  The  final  deathblow  to  opposition  against 
Christianity  was  given  by  the  Byzantine  emperor  Jus- 
tinian when  in  the  year  529  he  ordered  the  old  schools 
of  Athens  to  be  closed  forever,  and  put  an  end  to  the 
public  teachings  of  the  philosophers.  -  During  the 
previous  centuries  the  church  of  Achaia  made  progress 
indeed,  but  yet  could  not  prevail.  At  the  time  of 
Justinian  the  largest  communities  must  have  been  at 
Patrae,  where  according  to  tradition  the  apostle  St. 
Andrew  had  first  established  a  church,  and  in  Korinth, 
where  the  chief  bishop  of  the  church  of  Achaia  resided. 
Athens  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  successors  of 
Platon  and  Aristotle  and  Chrysippos.  Most  of  these 
teachers  were  pagans.  Indeed  in  other  parts  of  the 
Hellenic  world,  as  for  example  at  Alexandreia  and 
Antioch,  the  schools  of  philosophy  gradually  became 


54  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Christian.  But  this  did  not  happen  at  Athens.  The 
last  teachers  in  these  schools  were  just  as  far  from 
Christianity  as  were  the  original  founders.  They 
were  not  very  famous,  however.  And  the  last  eminent 
heathen  of  Athenian  antiquity  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  neo-Platonic  philosopher,  Proklos,  who  had 
died  long  before  Justinian's  edict  was  fulminated. 

Soon  after  the  closing  of  the  schools,  Christianity 
spread  without  further  opposition  in  all  the  towns  of 
Greece.  Only  in  the  country  and  mountainous  districts 
did  the  wild  inhabitants  still  retain  their  preference  for 
the  ancient  superstitions.  The  celebrated  Maniats, 
who  live  on  the  slopes  of  the  Parnon  and  Taygetos 
mountains  in  Lakonia,  accepted  Christianity  only  in 
the  eighth  century. 

In  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Great,  the  Roman 
empire  was  reapportioned  into  new  provinces.  Accord- 
ing to  this  division,  Achaia  was  assigned  to  Eastern 
Illyria.  The  seat  of  local  government  for  Eastern 
Illyria  was  the  city  of  Thessalonike.  The  church, 
which  from  that  time  on  was  recognized  by  the  state, 
followed  the  same  division.  Accordingly  the  arch- 
bishop of  Thessalonike  was  regarded  as  a  kind  of 
primate  over  the  church  of  Achaia. 

In  the  general  government  of  the  great  empire,  the 
province  of  Illyria  was  regarded  as  belonging  rather 
to  the  West  than  to  the  East.  The  church  of  Eastern 
Illyria  likewise  was  accounted  to  Rome  rather  than  to 
Constantinople.  In  this  way  the  Christians  of  Greece 
were  under  the  jurisdiction  not  of  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  but  of  the  pope  of  Rome.  Not  only 
thus  in  outward  government,  but  also  in  dogmatic 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE  55 

sentiment  was  the  Helladic  church  nearer  to  the  popes 
than  to  the  patriarchs.  When  the  ikonoklasts  of  Con- 
stantinople made  war  against  the  use  of  images,  the 
Helladians,  or  inhabitants  of  Greece  proper,  fiercely 
adhered  to  the  veneration  of  their  ikons,  and  took  the 
side  of  the  pope.  Love  for  the  city  of  Constantinople 
had  not  yet  taken  possession  of  them.  So  deeply  were 
the  Helladians  angered  by  the  action  of  the  ikonoklasts 
that  they  rose  in  insurrection  and  fitted  out  a  fleet  and 
sailed  off  against  Constantinople  to  dethrone  the  em- 
peror Leon.  But  their  ships  were  burned  by  Greek 
fire  which  was  poured  down  upon  them  from  the  walls 
of  the  city,  and  their  expedition  came  to  naught.  Leon 
continued  his  crusade  against  the  images.  Finally  the 
pope  excommunicated  him.  In  return  for  Gregory's 
excommunication,  the  emperor  withdrew  several  prov- 
inces from  the  immediate  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of 
Rome.  Among  these  was  Eastern  Illyria.  This  took 
place  in  the  year  733.  Whether  the  Helladians  desired 
the  transfer  or  not,  was  not  then  asked,  and  is  not  now 
determinable.  At  least  they  kept  to  their  ikons.  From 
the  year  733  down  to  the  year  1821,  they  continued  to 
be  under  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  consti- 
tuted part  of  the  eastern  or  Greek  church. 

By  their  long  and  complete  absorption  into  the 
eastern  church,  the  Helladic  communities  lost  all  the 
individual  and  local  characteristics  which  they  probably 
possessed  in  the  early  ages.  Of  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  eastern  empire  the  Greeks  were  the  most  numerous 
and  influential.  The  eastern  empire  therefore  grad- 
ually became  thoroughly  Greek  in  language  and  to 
some  extent  in  feeling.  It  is  chiefly  on  account  of  its 


56  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

official  language  that  the  eastern  church  has  become 
known  to  the  writers  of  the  West  as  the  "Greek" 
church.  For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  Helladic 
church  was  merely  a  portion  of  this  greater  Greek 
church,  whose  center  was  at  Constantinople.  After 
the  Helladians  ceased  to  be  distinguishable  from  the 
other  Greeks,  their  inspirations  thenceforward  came 
from  Constantinople;  they  became  entirely  Byzantine. 
All  their  ecclesiastical  sympathies  naturally  were 
thereafter  not  with  Rome,  whose  Latin  language  was 
unknown  to  them,  but  with  Constantinople,  whose  lan- 
guage was  theirs.  Even  in  architecture  is  this  Byzantine 
influence  clearly  evident.  Everywhere  throughout 
Greece  there  stand  churches  and  ruins  of  churches 
from  the  various  epochs  of  this  Byzantine  period.  All 
are  built  according  to  the  style  of  architecture  adopted 
for  ecclesiastical  structures  in  Constantinople,  being 
either  basilicas  or  more  frequently  domed  edifices  in 
the  form  of  a  Greek  cross.  In  Athens  there  are  several 
such  churches,  old  and  beautiful,  of  which  the  one 
sacred  to  the  Saints  Theodore  is  an  interesting  speci- 
men. It  was  built  in  the  ninth  century. 

During  the  first  eight  centuries  there  existed  no 
serious  variance  between  the  Greek  church  of  the 
East  and  the  Latin  church  of  the  West.  But  differ- 
ences and  jealousies  that  gradually  developed  brought 
about  a  separation  which  finally  became  formal  and 
fatal  in  the  year  1054,  when  Pope  Leo  IX  excom- 
municated the  patriarch  Michael.  The  church  of 
Greece  naturally  did  whatever  the  church  of  the  East 
did,  being  a  part  of  it. 

As  a  result  of  the  crusades,  various  western  powers 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE  57 

came  into  possession  of  Greece  and  held  it  for  upward 
of  two  hundred  years,  beginning  at  about  the  time  of 
the  Fourth  Crusade,  in  1204.  But  this  sway  of  the 
Franks  did  not  affect  the  religious  belief  of  the  in- 
habitants. They  remained  true  to  Constantinople. 

During  all  these  ages  there  had  been  growing 
among  the  theologians  of  the  East  a  belief  in  the 
principle  that  the  church  is  a  unit  not  in  government, 
but  merely  in  religious  belief  and  practice,  and  that 
when  other  reasons  demand  it,  the  church  of  each  state 
or  nation  may  be  entirely  free  from  all  jurisdiction 
coming  from  foreign  authority.  According  to  this 
principle,  each  national  church  may  be  independent  and 
autocephalous.  Accordingly  the  Greek  church  has 
gradually  been  subdivided.  Russia  and  Greece  and 
Roumania  and  Servia  and  other  countries,  whose  re- 
ligion is  identical  with  that  of  the  ancient  eastern 
church,  acknowledge  no  ecclesiastical  authority  of  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

The  church  of  Greece,  like  all  that  portion  of  the 
eastern  church  which  fell  under  Turkish  dominion, 
suffered  exceedingly  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople. 
Education  among  the  clergy  had  fallen  very  low. 
When  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  the  Greeks 
everywhere  began  to  hope  for  final  deliverance  from 
bondage  such  men  as  Koraes  and  Doukas  lamented 
the  sad  and  ignorant  condition  of  these  ministers  of 
Christianity.  Even  in  the  Ionian  Islands,  which  were 
under  Venetian  dominion,  and  enjoyed  many  of  the 
benefits  of  a  more  civilized  government,  the  clergy 
were  so  ill-educated  that  the  phrase  "ignorante  com' 
un  prete  greco"  was  a  proverb. 


58  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

In  spite  of  this  ignorance  and  lack  of  training,  the 
clergy  of  Greece  never  entirely  ceased  to  feel  that  they 
were  placed  for  the  betterment  of  the  people.  And 
when  at  last  the  moment  came  for  Greece,  after  various 
stages  of  servitude  for  twenty  centuries,  to  strike  a 
successful  blow  for  freedom,  it  was  an  ecclesiastic, 
Germanos,  the  bishop  of  Patrse,  who  blessed  the  ban- 
ner of  the  patriots  and  unfurled  it  at  the  church  door 
of  the  monastery  of  the  Holy  Lavra. 

This  revolution  against  Turkish  sway  broke  out  in 
the  Peloponnesos  in  1821.  Immediately  the  patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  forced  by  the  sultan,  excommuni- 
cated the  patriots.  This  measure,  together  with  the 
suspicion  that  the  Turk  could  at  any  future  time  use 
the  patriarch  against  them,  led  the  revolutionists  to 
determine  to  ignore  all  documents  and  messages  that 
during  the  struggle  for  independence  might  emanate 
from  the  patriarchate.  During  the  war  and  for  some 
time  afterward,  that  is,  from  1821  down  to  1833  or 
later,  there  was  no  central  government  for  the  church 
of  Greece.  The  patriarch  was  not  recognized,  and 
no  other  authority  had  been  substituted. 

The  first  step  toward  reorganizing  the  church  was 
made  in  the  year  1828,  when  the  president  of  the 
provisional  government,  Kapodistrias,  appointed  a 
committee  to  devise  some  way  to  restore  order  in 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  No  conclusion,  however,  was 
then  arrived  at.  In  1833,  a  synod  of  the  bishops  of 
the  country  convened  at  Navplion,  declared  that  the 
church  of  Greece  should  be  an  independent  branch  of 
the  eastern  church,  and  that  it  should  be  governed 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE  59 

similarly  to  the  manner  in  which  the  church  of  Russia 
is  governed. 

The  leading  spirit  in  this  movement  toward  separa- 
tion was  the  priest  and  theologian  Pharmakides.  He 
was  perhaps  the  most  learned  ecclesiastic  in  Greece. 
He  had  studied  theology  in  the  university  of  Tubingen. 
Not  all  the  Greeks,  however,  were  in  favor  of  separa- 
tion from  the  patriarch.  Many  looked  upon  such  a 
course  as  schismatical.  The  leader  of  those  who  pre- 
ferred continued  union  with  Constantinople  was  the 
theologian  (Ekonomos,  who  was  equal  in  education 
to  Pharmakides  perhaps,  but  inferior  to  him  in  honesty 
of  thought  and  in  system. 

After  the  church  of  Greece  had  in  the  synod  of 
Navplion  declared  itself  independent,  it  was  found 
difficult  to  announce  the  fact  officially  to  the  patriarch. 
It  was  well  known  that  he  would  not  acknowledge  the 
announcement.  The  Helladic  Greeks  saw  the  necessity 
of  not  acting  hastily,  so  as  to  avoid  producing  the  im- 
pression that  they  were  cutting  themselves  loose  from 
the  Greeks  in  the  Turkish  dominions,  and  elsewhere, 
who  continued  to  look  upon  the  patriarch  as  their  head. 
In  this  way  years  passed,  and  no  decisive  measure  was 
suggested  either  by  the  Greeks  to  be  recognized  as 
autocephalous,  or  by  the  patriarch  to  make  it  possible 
for  their  report  to  be  received. 

At  last,  in  the  year  1850,  the  synod  of  bishops  who 
had  the  direction  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  Greece 
took  the  final  step  and  announced  to  the  patriarch  the 
independence  of  their  church.  On  receiving  the  an- 
nouncement the  patriarch  did  just  what  the  Greek 
synod  had  dreaded.  He  summoned  in  Constantinople 


60  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

a  council  of  bishops,  who  after  deliberation  declared 
that  the  Greeks  had  not  acted  canonically,  that  the 
manner  in  which  the  church  of  Greece  had  been  di- 
rected ever  since  the  declaration  of  ecclesiastical  inde- 
pendence was  not  correct,  and  that  much  that  had  been 
done  would  have  to  be  undone.  He,  however,  at  the 
same  time  declared  the  church  of  Greece  to  be  hence- 
forth independent  in  almost  all  matters ;  but  this  condi- 
tion of  independence  was  to  begin  not  from  the  decision 
of  the  synod  of  Navplion  in  1833,  but  from  the  utter- 
ance of  the  patriarch  in  this  regard  in  1850.  He  also 
sent  to  Greece  a  set  of  regulations  for  the  direction  of 
the  future  independent  church. 

When  this  news  from  the  patriarch  reached  Greece, 
(Ekonomos  and  the  friends  of  continued  union  with 
Constantinople  warmly  advocated  the  partial  independ- 
ence offered.  But  Pharmakides  vigorously  defended 
the  action  already  taken  by  the  bishops  of  Greece,  and 
wrote  a  book  against  the  acceptance  of  the  conditions 
placed  by  the  patriarch.  This  book  had  great  influence. 
And  the  result  was  that  the  Greek  parliament,  which 
had  to  consider  the  question,  rejected  nearly  all  of  the 
regulations  fixed  by  the  patriarch.  The  only  important 
condition  which  the  parliament  accepted  was  that  the 
holy  oils  should  always  be  procured  from  the  patri- 
archate as  a  token  of  respect. 

When  the  patriarch  saw  no  other  course  open  except 
that  of  allowing  the  Greeks  to  have  their  own  will  in 
the  matter,  he,  after  a  time,  recognized  the  full  inde- 
pendence of  the  church  of  Greece.  And  the  church  is 
now  governed  in  accordance  with  the  regulations  pro- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  GREECE  61 

posed  by  the  bishops  at  Navplion  in  1833,  and  finally 
reaffirmed  with  some  modifications  in  1852. 

The  supreme  management  of  all  purely  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  rests  with  the  Holy  Synod.  The  president 
of  the  synod  is  the  metropolitan  archbishop  of  Athens. 
Besides  the  president  there  are  four  other  members 
appointed  annually,  in  the  order  of  hierarchical  sen- 
iority. These  appointments  are  made  by  the  civil 
government. 

It  is  probable  that  the  church  has  a  certain  amount 
of  influence  in  directing  and  sustaining  the  morals  of 
the  people.  But  this  influence  is  by  no  means  so  effect- 
ive as  it  ought  to  be.  One  of  the  great  hindrances 
toward  the  usefulness  of  the  church  is  now  as  in 
Turkish  times  the  lack  of  education  among  most 
of  the  clergy.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  remedy 
this  evil,  but  success  has  not  been  great.  The  church 
itself  can  do  nothing,  for  it  is  completely  hampered 
by  the  state.  And  the  state  can  do  but  very  little  on 
account  of  its  famous  poverty. 

When  Greece  became  free,  there  existed  a  great 
number  of  monasteries,  some  two  hundred  and  forty- 
five.  It  was  soon  decided  to  abolish  all  save  eighty-six 
of  these,  and  to  employ  the  revenues  of  the  properties 
attached  to  the  monasteries  in  educating  the  clergy  and 
paying  the  salaries  of  the  bishops.  The  properties 
were  confiscated  accordingly,  but  the  clergy  have  re- 
ceived exceedingly  little  benefit  therefrom. 

Nearly  everything  noble  in  Greece  is  due  to  private 
good-will.  This  is  the  case  also  in  respect  of  providing 
for  the  education  of  the  clergy.  Two  rich  brothers, 
Georgios  and  Manthos  Rizares,  from  Epeiros,  founded 


62  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  endowed  a  school  in  which  candidates  for  the 
priesthood  may  receive  a  collegiate  classical  education 
together  with  some  knowledge  of  theology  and  kindred 
studies.  This  school  is  now  flourishing,  but  many  of 
the  young  men  who  study  in  the  Rizareion  abandon 
their  intention  of  becoming  clergymen,  and  adopt  some 
other  profession. 

Another  step  toward  raising  the  condition  of  learn- 
ing among  the  clergy  was  the  establishing  of  a  school 
of  theology  in  the  university  of  Athens  when  this 
institution  was  founded  in  1837.  This  school  sends 
out  several  fairly  well-educated  clergymen  every  year. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  most  of  the  clergy- 
men never  attempt  to  preach  the  gospel.  That  duty  is 
entirely  beyond  their  powers.  Most  congregations 
hear  a  sermon  only  two  or  three  times  a  year,  if  even 
so  often. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  disagreeable  disadvan- 
tages, the  church  of  Greece  possesses  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  ecclesiastical  writers.  In  all  the  more  common 
branches  of  theological  investigation  the  Greeks  are 
becomingly  represented,  although  they  cannot  claim 
any  theologian  of  eminence.  They  have  not  yet  been 
able  to  break  off  from  the  old  idea  that  religious 
polemics  are  the  life  of  theological  study. 

Such  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  church  of  Greece  as  it 
is  and  has  been  since  its  foundation  in  the  first  century 
down  to  the  present  day. 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS 

In  many  natural  religions  there  are  performed  at 
certain  recurrent  festivals  and  on  the  occasion  of  por- 
tentous events,  peculiar  clandestine  and  orgiastic  rites 
which  may  be  witnessed  only  by  members  of  the  clan 
or  brotherhood.  Secret  ceremonies  of  this  kind  were 
not  absent  from  the  old  Hellenic  religions.  Of  all 
mystic  sanctuaries  to  which  only  properly  qualified  and 
duly  approved  spectators  were  admitted,  the  most  cele- 
brated in  the  classic  ages  and  in  subsequent  history 
was  the  shrine  of  the  twain  goddesses  at  Elevsis. 

Investigators  are  unable  to  date  the  first  beginnings 
of  this  Attic  town  of  Elevsis.  However,  the  discovery 
of  prehistoric  tombs  near  its  ancient  citadel  indicates 
that  is  was  well  inhabited  in  the  second  millennium 
before  Christ.  Its  advantageous  position  made  it  a 
center  of  opulence.  It  owned  the  fertile  Rharian  fields 
which  stretch  westward  along  the  sea  toward  the  Meg- 
arid,  and  the  equally  productive  plain  of  Thria  which 
extends  eastward  along  the  road  to  Athens.  Through 
Elevsis  passed  the  chief  overland  route  between  Attika 
and  the  rest  of  Greece.  Its  secure  harbor  made  it  an 
acceptable  commercial  station  for  the  Phoenicians  and 
other  roving  merchants  of  the  eastern  Mediterranean. 
The  waters  of  its  expansive  bay  teemed  with  fishes  and 
sea  fruit.  But  more  than  six  hundred  years  before  the 
beginning  of  our  era  the  Elevsinians  lost  their  inde- 
pendence and  were  absorbed  in  the  Athenian  common- 
wealth. This  change,  instead  of  proving  detrimental  to 

63 


64  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

their  local  religious  practices,  rather  contributed  to 
their  preservation  and  further  development.  For  the 
Elevsiniac  cults  were  adopted  by  the  victorious  Athe- 
nians and  became  part  of  the  state  religion. 

The  divinities  in  whose  commemoration  the  mystic 
rites  were  performed  are  most  popularly  known 
through  a  fable  called  "the  anthology,"  which  has  often 
been  retold  by  poets  and  mythologists.  The  divine 
Persephone  while  romping  with  the  daughters  of  the 
Ocean  in  the  flowery  fields  of  Nisa  was  kidnaped  by 
Polydegmon  or  Plouton,  the  king  of  the  Dead,  and 
carried  off  to  become  his  consort  and  to  reign  with 
him  forever  in  his  silent  halls.  Her  forlorn  mother, 
Demeter,  not  knowing  what  fate  had  befallen  Perseph- 
one, traveled  the  earth  in  search  of  her.  The  Sun, 
who  was  the  only  witness  to  Polydegmon's  act,  finally 
revealed  the  facts.  Thereupon  Demeter,  in  her  dis- 
pleasure, wandered  off  to  Elevsis,  where  she  made 
herself  known  to  Keleos  the  king,  and  caused  him  to 
build  a  temple  sacred  to  her.  In  this  temple  she  took 
up  her  abode,  refusing  to  return  to  Olympos  and  to 
associate  with  the  other  gods  until  after  her  daughter 
be  restored  to  her.  She  sent  a  destructive  drought  and 
blight  over  the  earth,  and  it  ceased  to  give  forth  its 
fruits.  The  human  race  was  about  to  perish  through 
famine,  and  then  there  would  be  no  men  to  honor  the 
gods  by  sacrifice.  To  avert  these  impending  calamities 
a  reconciliation  was  effected  through  the  mediation  of 
Zevs.  Persephone  was  to  stay  for  nine  months  of 
every  year  in  the  company  of  her  mother,  and  for  the 
remaining  three  was  to  reign  with  her  gloomy  husband 
over  the  shadowy  souls  of  the  departed. 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  65 

This  myth,  like  the  mystic  cult  based  upon  it,  under- 
went various  changes  during  the  successive  ages.  Plow 
and  when  it  began  cannot  be  ascertained.  Perhaps  it 
was  brought  to  Elevsis  from  Krete,  as  Gruppe  confi- 
dently states  in  the  history  of  mythology  and  religion 
which  he  wrote.  At  least  in  later  times  the  Kretans 
are  reported  as  believing  that  the  worship  of  Demeter 
had,  like  other  Attic  cults,  been  transplanted  from  their 
island  into  Attika.  Accepting  the  Kretan  provenance 
of  the  cult,  the  ninth  century  before  Christ  may  be 
assigned  as  the  epoch  during  which  the  Elevsiniac 
sanctuary  was  established.  But  if  Foucart's  reasoning 
be  correct,  as  he  states  it  in  his  Researches  on  the 
Origin  and  Nature  of  the  Mysteries  of  Elevsis,  the  cult 
is  still  older,  and  came  from  Egypt  in  the  epoch  of  the 
Pharaohs  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen hundred  years  before  our  era.  The  earliest 
literary  mention  of  this  sanctuary  is  in  the  Hymn  to 
Demeter,  which  was  composed  toward  the  close  of  the 
seventh  century.  This  hymn  shows,  however,  that  the 
rites  were  then  already  venerably  ancient.  It  also 
refers  to  their  mystic  character  and  to  the  blissful  fate 
of  all  mortals  to  whose  lot  falls  the  happiness  of  being 
initiated  into  them.  In  the  most  primitive  stages  of 
their  existence  these  mysteries  were  probably  religious 
ceremonies  performed  at  a  shrine  belonging  to  a  few 
of  the  prominent  families  of  Elevsis.  Circumstances 
now  unknown  added  some  special  virtue  or  glory  to 
these  rites.  The  privilege  of  participating  in  them  was 
gradually  extended  to  other  Elevsinians.  In  historic 
times  two  Elevsinian  families,  the  Evmolpids  and  the 
Keryks,  possessed  the  secret  of  the  mysteries  by  ancient 


66  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

inheritance  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 
They  conducted  the  mystic  rites  and  presided  over  all 
the  acts  of  initiation.  It  may  therefore  easily  be  sup- 
posed that  those  who  originally  established  this  cult  in 
Elevsis  were  the  progenitors  of  the  Evmolpids  and  the 
Keryks. 

In  the  anthologic  myth  there  are  survivals  of  two 
kinds  of  primitive  cult.  Demeter,  the  Corn  Lady,  and 
Persephone,  the  Seed  which  annually  remains  hidden 
in  the  earth  for  a  third  of  the  year,  are  deities  which 
naturally  belong  to  agrarian  rites;  while  Plouton,  as 
the  Dark  Receiver  and  Possessor  of  the  Dead,  is  a 
divinity  closely  connected  with  the  worship  of  ances- 
tors. In  their  later  developments  the  Elevsiniac  mys- 
teries grew  into  a  series  of  magnificent  ceremonies, 
which  bore  very  slight  resemblance  to  rites  of  such  an 
origin.  But,  nevertheless,  the  emphatic  and  exceptional 
way  in  which  these  mysteries  nourished  the  hope  that 
after  death  the  human  soul  survives,  recalls  the  primi- 
tive agrarian  and  funereal  practices  and  may  be 
explained  by  thinking  that  some  resemblance  was  seen 
between  the  fate  of  mortals  after  death  and  that  of  the 
seed  which  is  covered  and  hidden  in  the  earth,  but  does 
not  loose  its  vitality. 

The  shrine  of  Demeter  and  Persephone,  or  Kore, 
must  have  been  highly  revered  in  the  seventh  century 
before  Christ.  On  that  account  the  Athenians,  when 
they  annexed  Elevsis  to  their  territory,  incorporated 
the  rites  of  these  goddesses  into  the  state  religion  of 
Athens.  This  official  act  occasioned  a  number  of  modi- 
fications in  the  Elevsiniac  cult.  Presence  at  the  cele- 
bration of  the  mysteries,  and  participation  in  them,  was 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  67 

no  longer  the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  Elevsinians. 
Any  Athenian  citizen,  any  inhabitant  of  Attika,  might, 
under  prescribed  conditions,  be  initiated  and  allowed 
to  enjoy  all  the  blessings  that  the  mysteries  could  give. 
For  the  accommodation  of  the  increased  number  of 
participants  a  larger  temple  or  hall  had  to  be  con- 
structed at  Elevsis.  Mystic  rites  of  this  kind  could  not 
be  performed  in  the  open  air,  like  most  other  Hellenic 
religious  exercises.  The  preliminary  and  preparatory 
rites  and  purifications  and  sacrifices  which  each  candi- 
date had  to  fulfil  before  being  received  into  the  temple 
of  Demeter  and  her  daughter  were  hereafter  to  take 
place  not  at  Elevsis,  but  at  Athens.  And  after  the 
completion  of  these  preparatory  ceremonies  then  all 
who  were  to  see  the  mysteries  went  in  sacred  proces- 
sion on  a  fixed  day  from  Athens  to  Elevsis. 

When  the  armies  of  Xerxes  invaded  Greece,  in  480 
before  Christ,  they  pillaged  and  burned  the  sanctuary 
of  Demeter,  where  the  mystic  ceremonies  used  to  be 
celebrated  in  Elevsis.  But  immediately  after  their 
departure  the  sanctuary  was  restored  and  the  rites  were 
continued.  By  their  wise  and  patriotic  conduct  in  the 
struggle  against  the  Persian  invaders  the  Athenians 
created  for  themselves  the  well-merited  reputation  of 
being  the  foremost  and  most  enviable  of  all  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Greek  world.  Athens  was  for  the  Greeks 
what  Paris  once  was  for  the  inhabitants  of  Europe. 
The  Athenians  were  regarded  as  models  in  everything 
that  related  to  the  higher  and  more  cultivated  and  more 
spiritual  life.  From  all  quarters  of  the  Hellenic  world 
candidates  applied  for  admission  to  the  Elevsiniac 
rites.  The  extension  of  the  privilege  to  all  Greeks, 


68  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

whether  Athenians  or  not,  must  have  occurred  shortly 
after  the  Persian  wars,  if  not  even  earlier.  Herodotos 
and  Isokrates  and  others  refer  to  this  extension  as  to 
an  established  practice.  And  about  440  before  Christ, 
so  widely  recognized  were  the  claims  of  the  Elevsiniac 
sanctuary  that  the  Athenians  passed  a  law  regulating 
the  manner  in  which  the  annual  regular  offerings  of 
first  fruits  were  to  be  delivered,  gifts  which  Athens 
seems  to  have  confidently  expected  and  received  for  the 
sanctuary,  not  only  from  her  allies,  but  also  from  many 
of  the  other  independent  Greek  states. 

No  amount  of  investigation  will  ever  reconstruct 
for  us  a  complete  picture  of  what  took  place  at  these 
mysteries.  The  obligation  of  secrecy  which  was  im- 
posed on  every  candidate  for  admission  was  never 
openly  violated.  Two  chief  considerations  checked  all 
indiscreetness  in  this  direction.  Whoever  dared  to 
divulge  what  he  saw  and  heard  within  the  holy  walls 
not  only  committed  an  offense  against  religion  and  thus 
exposed  himself  to  the  vengeance  of  the  gods,  but  also 
made  himself  a  culprit  before  the  laws  of  the  state,  and 
liable  to  punishment  by  death.  Those  who  knew  the 
mysteries  never  conversed  about  them  without  first 
assuring  themselves  that  no  uninitiated  person  was 
within  hearing.  In  the  year  431,  the  enemies  of  Alki- 
biades  succeeded  in  having  sentence  of  death  passed 
against  him  by  accusing  him  of  different  crimes,  the 
principal  one,  and  perhaps  the  only  one  mentioned  in 
the  official  indictment,  being  that  with  a  number  of 
riotous  companions  he  had  one  night  parodied  and 
ridiculed  the  rites  of  Elevsis. 

About  the  year  315  before  Christ,  a  young  man 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  '  69 

named  Theodores  was  sitting  and  chatting  with  Evry- 
kleides,  the  hierophant  of  the  mysteries.  Theodoros, 
wishing  to  tease  his  solemn  companion,  said  that  every 
hierophant  was  guilty  of  the  crime  of  revealing  the 
mysteries  because,  when  accepting  postulants  and  in- 
itiating them,  the  hierophant  always  imparted  to  them 
a  knowledge  of  the  secrets.  Evrykleides,  however, 
refused  to  regard  the  mysteries  as  a  suitable  topic  for 
pleasantry.  He  brought  an  accusation  of  impiety 
against  the  wit-loving  youth.  Theodoros  was  con- 
demned to  die  by  drinking  hemlock,  but  perhaps  the 
sentence  was  remitted  through  the  influence  of  the 
archon,  Demetrios  of  Phaleron.  Pavsanias,  who  was 
an  intelligent  and  curious  tourist,  was  disposed  to 
describe  in  detail  the  architecture  and  much  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  shrines  of  the  two  goddesses  in  Athens  and 
Elevsis,  but  suddenly  cut  off  his  description  with  the  re- 
mark that  in  a  dream  he  had  been  directed  not  to 
proceed  farther  in  this  respect. 

But  notwithstanding  this  severe  reticence  regarding 
everything  connected  with  these  hidden  rites,  it  is  quite 
probable  that  something  of  what  was  to  be  seen  and 
heard  within  the  hall  of  initiation  became  known  to 
even  the  "profane."  Early  Christian  writers,  in  their 
attacks  on  paganism,  refer  to  the  mysteries  and  mention 
rites  and  formulas  peculiar  to  them.  This  fact  indi- 
cates that  these  ecclesiastical  scholars,  although  not 
initiated  in  the  mysteries,  were  nevertheless  acquainted 
with  them,  at  least  partially.  And  their  statements 
concerning  the  performances  and  utterances  that  con- 
stituted part  of  the  mystic  services  are  one  of  our  chief 
sources  of  information. 


70  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

As  a  welcome  supplement  to  the  meager  bits  of  in- 
formation scattered  throughout  the  texts  come  some  in- 
teresting facts  furnished  by  archaeological  research.  A 
few  antique  vases  have  been  found  in  Italy  and  Greece 
which  are  decorated  with  scenes  illustrative  of  mystic 
initiation  ceremonies.  Scientific  excavations  made  at 
Elevsis  have  laid  bare  the  foundations  of  the  ancient 
hall  where  the  initiations  took  place  and  of  the  other 
shrines  and  edifices  belonging  in  some  way  or  other 
to  the  Elevsiniac  cult.  A  number  of  inscriptions  found 
at  Elevsis  and  others  found  at  Athens  give  precise  in- 
formation concerning  many  of  the  outward  features 
of  the  celebrations.  And  pieces  of  sculpture  represent- 
ing the  divinities  worshiped  in  these  rites  assist  in 
teaching  us  the  nature  of  the  divinities  in  question  and 
therefore  also  the  nature  of  the  cult  by  which  they  were 
worshiped. 

In  the  fifth  century  and  ever  thereafter  the  postulant 
went  through  three  sets  of  ceremonies  or  three  stages 
of  initiation.  In  the  city  of  Athens  he  was  admitted 
to  what  may  be  called  the  "first  degree ;"  a  few  months 
later  he  went  to  Elevsis  and  entered  the  first  degree  of 
the  Elevsiniac  branch,  or  the  second  degree  of  the  full 
series,  and  after  a  year  he  again  presented  himself  at 
Elevsis  for  the  highest  and  last  degree.  The  entire 
process  was  about  as  follows : 

For  several  consecutive  days  in  Anthesterion,  the 
vernal  month  of  flowers,  the  Athenians  annually  cele- 
brated within  the  city  a  festival  in  honor  of  Demeter 
and  Kore.  The  rites  performed  at  this  festival  were 
not  open  to  the  public  and  might  be  witnessed  only  by 
accepted  and  properly  prepared  postulants.  To  dis- 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  71 

tinguish  these  rites  from  the  celebration  at  Elevsis 
these  less  important  ones  were  known  as  the  "Little" 
or  "Lesser  Mysteries."  From  the  name  of  the  locality 
where  the  temple  stood  in  which  these  little  mysteries 
took  place,  they  were  also  known  as  the  "Mysteries  in 
Agrae."  Strangers  who  undertook  the  journey  to 
Athens  as  postulants  for  admission  were  protected 
from  all  molestation,  even  in  time  of  war,  by  a  truce 
which  lasted  about  fifty-five  days.  As  a  preparation 
for  beholding  the  ceremonies  each  candidate  bathed 
himself  in  a  way  prescribed  by  ritual  in  the  river  Ilisos, 
and  offered  certain  propitiatory  sacrifices.  The  puri- 
ficatory rites  may  have  varied  according  to  the  needs 
of  the  candidates.  Those  who  were  guilty  of  deeds  of 
blood  and  of  other  heavy  crimes,  if  they  had  never  been 
ritualistically  purified,  were  not  admitted.  This  ex- 
clusion of  unfit  candidates  and  the  preparation  of 
others  by  a  purification  adapted  to  their  condition, 
presupposes  some  kind  of  confession  of  grave  sins. 
After  witnessing  the  secret  rites  the  candidate  was 
known  as  an  "initiate"  or  "myst."  Concerning  the 
mysteries  of  Agne  no  further  and  deeper  information 
is  available.  In  later  times,  in  order  to  accommodate 
the  great  numbers  of  strangers  who  presented  them- 
selves for  initiation,  these  lesser  mysteries  were  some- 
times celebrated  twice  in  the  same  year,  for  no  one 
might  enter  the  Great  Mysteries  without  previously 
being  prepared  by  reception  into  those  at  Agrse. 

Every  autumn,  in  the  month  of  Boedromion,  the 
mystic  rites  were  performed  at  Elevsis.  Every  four 
years  they  were  celebrated  with  exceptional  magnifi- 
cence and  accompanied  by  agonistic  contests.  Long 


72  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

before  the  time  appointed  for  the  beginning  of  the 
festival,  messengers,  sent  out  from  Athens,  announced 
the  sacred  truce  to  all  the  neighboring  states.  The 
celebration  lasted  about  twelve  days.  The  first  few 
days  were  devoted  to  preparation.  On  the  fourteenth 
of  the  month  certain  sacred  and  precious  objects  which 
were  needed  in  Athens  for  the  preparatory  days  of  the 
festival,  and  which  when  not  in  use  were  kept  carefully 
hidden  in  the  Sanctuary  at  Elevsis,  were  carried  by 
priestesses  to  Athens  and  deposited  in  a  holy  house 
called  the  Elevsinion,  near  the  Akropolis.  These 
objects  were  probably  vestments  and  utensils  used  in 
the  performing  of  the  sacred  rites  and  also  certain 
objects  connected  with  the  worship  of  lakchos,  whose 
cult  had  been  associated  with  that  of  Demeter  and 
Kore.  Perhaps,  also,  statues  representing  these  divini- 
ties were  among  these  sacra.  From  an  inscription  we 
learn  that  in  the  second  century  of  our  era  it  was 
customary  for  a  company  of  young  Athenian  knights 
to  constitute  a  mounted  guard  of  honor  accompanying 
these  valuable  sacra  from  Elevsis  to  Athens.  The 
bearers  of  the  sacra  were  escorted  part  of  the  way  by 
the  people  of  Elevsis,  and  on  their  approach  to  the 
city  they  were  met  by  the  people  of  Athens,  who 
accompanied  them  to  the  Elevsinion  with  acclamations 
of  pious  welcome.  As  soon  as  these  objects  had  been 
placed  in  the  temporary  repository  in  the  Elevsinion 
the  phaedyntes,  or  official  who  had  charge  of  them, 
announced  the  fact  to  the  priestess  of  Athena,  the 
tutelary  goddess  of  the  city,  and  with  this  announce- 
ment the  festival  began. 

On  the  following  day  the  mysts  who  intended  to  go 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  73 

to  Elevsis  were  convoked  into  an  assembly  to  hear  the 
warning  against  all  who  were  guilty  of  manslaughter 
or  other  heinous  offenses  and  all  who  by  reason  of 
other  prohibitions  might  not  be  initiated.  Women  pos- 
sessed equally  with  men  the  privilege  of  initiation. 
Children  were  received  into  the  Little  Mysteries,  and 
possibly  also  into  those  of  the  first  night  at  Elevsis.  It 
seems  that  slaves  of  Greek  descent  were  also  occasion- 
ally allowed  to  participate.  This  condescension  in 
favor  of  the  slaves  is  the  more  remarkable  because  as 
a  rule  slaves  were  not  allowed  to  associate  on  equal 
terms  with  free  citizens  in  religious  rites  at  Athens. 
Barbarians  were  strictly  excluded.  Each  postulant,  in 
order  to  be  accepted  and  to  receive  instruction,  placed 
himself  under  the  guidance  of  a  mystagog.  The 
mystagog  w?s  by  descent  a  member  of  either  the 
Evmolpid  or  the  Keryk  family.  Perhaps  such  postu- 
larts  as  were  rejected  by  the  mystagog  might  make  a 
final  appeal  to  the  hierophant.  Or  perhaps  the  hiero- 
phant might  reject  candidates  even  when  introduced 
and  recommended  by  a  mystagog.  In  the  year  31  of 
our  era  the  celebrated  wonder-worker,  Apollonios  of 
Tyana,  came  to  Athens  and  requested  the  privilege  of 
initiation ;  but  the  hierophant  hesitated,  saying  that  the 
gates  were  not  open  to  magicians  who  communed  with 
unclean  spirits.  But  Apollonios  was  later  admitted. 
It  may  be  that  occasionally  the  hierophants  were  put 
to  their  wits'  ends  to  observe  the  strict  law  and  yet 
accept  candidates  who  though  debarred  for  some  cause 
or  other  could  not  recklessly  and  irresponsibly  be 
turned  away.  When  Demetrios  came  from  Asia  and 
won  the  temporary  gratitude  of  the  Greeks  by  driving 


74  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  Makedonians  out  of  the  Peloponnesos,  he  sent  a 
message  to  the  Athenians  saying  that  he  was  about  to 
arrive  in  their  city  and  that  he  desired  initiation  into 
all  the  degrees  of  the  mysteries.  The  Athenians,  unable 
to  expect  the  hierophants  to  violate  the  law  which 
ordained  that  the  first  initiation  should  take  place  in 
springtime  and  the  second  in  autumn  and  the  third  in 
the  autumn  of  the  following  year,  removed  all  diffi- 
culties by  means  of  a  wonderful  casuistic  juggling  with 
the  official  calendar.  They  decreed  that  the  month  of 
Demetrios'  arrival  in  Athens  should  for  the  nonce  be 
officially  known  as  the  spring  month  Anthesterion,  and 
after  this  prince  had  received  the  first  initiation  in  the 
Little  Mysteries  this  same  month  should  immediately 
take  on  the  name  of  the  autumn  month  Boedromion, 
and  that  after  the  complete  initiation  was  over  this 
polyonymous  month  should  reassume  its  own  proper 
name. 

The  candidates  underwent  some  fixed  kind  of  pro- 
bation and  preparation.  They  performed  certain  puri- 
ficatory ablutions  in  the  sea  and  offered  prescribed 
propitiatory  sacrifices,  including  that  of  a  sacred  pig. 
Magnificent  sacrifices  were  also  offered  by  the  Archon 
Basilevs  to  bring  the  favors  of  the  gods  upon  the 
government,  the  citizens  of  Athens,  their  wives  and 
children.  In  commemoration  of  Demeter's  nine  days' 
wandering  and  grief  in  search  of  Persephone,  the  mysts 
fasted  for  nine  days.  Perhaps  this  fast  consisted  in 
eating  nothing  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  perhaps  it 
was  merely  an  abstinence  from  certain  kinds  of  foods, 
as  from  meat,  fish,  beans,  pomegranates,  and  apples. 
These  preparatory  rites  and  practices  all  belonged  to  the 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  75 

first  days  of  the  festival  and  were  all  performed  at 
Athens. 

On  the  twentieth  day  of  the  month  the  mysts  went 
in  gorgeous  procession  from  Athens  to  Elevsis  where 
the  most  sacred  and  secret  part  of  the  rites  were  to  be 
accomplished.  They  were  accompanied  by  their  friends, 
by  the  mystagogs,  by  a  military  escort  of  ephebs,  and 
by  a  multitude  of  men,  women,  and  children  who  took 
part  in  the  pilgrimage  out  of  piety  toward  the  gods 
or  out  of  simple  curiosity.  Thirty  thousand  may  not 
be  an  exaggerated  number  to  represent  this  crowd.  By 
consecrated  custom  the  journey  was  made  on  foot. 
This  was  not  a  light  undertaking,  for  the  Sacred  Way, 
which  joins  Athens  and  Elevsis,  measures  more  than 
eleven  miles.  When  Athens  became  opulent  and  luxu- 
rious it  began  to  grow  common  for  richer  .individuals, 
especially  fashionable  ladies  and  courtesans,  to  ac- 
company the  procession  in  carriages.  To  abolish  this 
growing  fashion  Lykourgos  introduced  a  law  for- 
bidding it  and  imposing  a  heavy  fine  on  all  who  might 
violate  the  law.  Lykourgos  himself  was  the  first  to 
pay  the  fine,  for  his  wife  was  the  first  to  offend  against 
the  law.  The  mysts  wore  crowns  of  myrtle,  for  myrtle 
was  sacred  to  Demeter  and  Kore  as  being  chthonic 
deities.  In  later  times  they  usually  dressed  in  gar- 
ments of  white.  Each  man  carried  a  torch,  which  was 
to  be  lighted  at  nightfall. 

In  the  procession  the  sacred  objects  which  had  been 
brought  to  Athens  a  few  days  previously  were  carried 
back  to  Elevsis  by  priests  and  priestesses  and  attend- 
ants. But  the  holiest  object  in  the  procession  was  a 
statue  of  the  young  god  lakchos,  a  sort  of  agricultural 


76  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  orgiastic  deity,  whose  worship  had  been  combined 
with  that  of  Demeter  and  Kore  ever  since  the  cult  of 
Elevsis  had  become  a  portion  of  the  religion  of  Athens. 
According  to  one  myth,  he  was  the  son  of  Persephone. 
Specially  designated  officials  had  charge  of  the  proces- 
sional car  which  carried  the  statue.  In  a  kind  of 
ecstatic  frenzy  the  great  multitude  kept  singing  and 
shouting  the  name  of  this  god,  "lakch,  O  lakchos, 
lakch,  O  lakchos."  It  seems  that  the  statue  was 
needed  in  the  performance  of  the  secret  rites.  No 
other  reason  explains  why  it  should  thus  be  brought  to 
Elevsis. 

Along  the  Sacred  Way  there  were  holy  places, 
shrines,  altars,  and  temples  at  which  the  pilgrims 
stopped  and  performed  acts  of  worship.  These  delays 
so  retarded  their  advance  that  night  came  on  three  or 
four  hours  before  they  reached  Elevsis.  Their  last 
station  was  at  Krokon's  Castle,  a  v;llage  near  the 
ancient  confines  of  Athenian  and  Elevsinian  territory. 
Here  the  descendants  of  the  mystic  hero  Krokon, 
who  were  inhabiting  the  village,  distributed  saffron- 
colored  ribbons,  and  each  myst  tied  one  of  these  round 
his  right  arm  and  another  round  his  left  leg.  Shortly 
after  this  ceremony  night  came  on.  and  the  thirty 
thousand  lighted  their  immense  torches.  They  entered 
Elevsis  toward  midnight.  After  feasting  and  dancing 
and  singing  for  some  two  or  three  hours,  each  one 
found  some  corner  in  which  to  rest  as  well  as  he  could 
from  his  fatigue  and  regain  strength  for  the  great  rites 
which  were  to  begin  on  the  evening  of  the  approach- 
ing day. 

On  the  following  night  all  who  had  a  right  to  be 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  77 

received  into  the  first  mysteries  at  Elevsis,  or  the 
second  degree  in  the  entire  mystic  series,  gathered  into 
the  great  Telesterion,  or  Temple  of  the  Twain  God- 
desses. Modern  excavations  and  investigations  at 
Elevsis  prove  that  at  least  three  times  this  temple  had 
been  rebuilt,  and  each  time  on  a  larger  scale.  The  new- 
est of  the  three  was  built  in  the  fourth  century  and 
could  accommodate  about  three  thousand  persons,  being 
about  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet  square.  If  one- 
tenth  of  those  who  came  to  Elevsis  were  postulants, 
then  this  Telesterion  could  contain  them  all  at  one 
session.  Certain  preliminary  ceremonies  took  place 
outside  of  the  Telesterion,  but  within  a  great  inclosure 
shut  off  from  the  eyes  of  the  "profane."  Here  prob- 
ably the  warning  against  all  uninitiated  was  repeated. 
We  do  not  know  what  precautions  were  taken  to  be 
certain  that  no  uninitiated  intruders  entered  the  Teles- 
terion. Only  one  instance  is  known  when  outsiders 
succeeded  in  passing  within  the  Mystic  Temple.  They 
were  two  young  countrymen  from  Akarnania.  They 
were  put  to  death.  After  ascertaining  that  none  save 
mysts  were  present  the  obligation  of  secrecy  was  en- 
joined. They  then  passed  into  the  Mystic  Temple. 

Within  this  hall  the  mysts  were  made  to  experience 
the  most  blood-curdling  sensations  of  horror  and  the 
most  enthusiastic  ecstasy  of  joy.  No  lamps  were  burn- 
ing to  illuminate  the  hall.  The  weak  light  which  may 
have  dimly  entered  through  the  openings  in  the  roof 
was  on  these  moonless  nights  insufficient  to  allow  the 
mysts  to  locate  themselves  in  the  spacious  room  or  to 
recognize  each  other.  They  became  a  frightened 
crowd.  The  interminable  suspense  of  the  awe-stricken 


78  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  groping  mysts  was  at  intervals  relieved  and  pre- 
vented from  turning  into  madness  by  occasional  mystic 
phrases  uttered  by  some  unseen  priest  reminding  them 
that  their  gropings  were  commemorative  of  the  wan- 
derings of  Demeter  in  search  of  her  lost  daughter,  and 
that  these  horrors  would  therefore  finally  turn  to  some 
mysterious  delight.  It  is  probable  that  in  later  times 
tableaux  were  shown  in  the  dim  light,  representing 
scenes  in  the  Underworld.  In  the  midst  of  this 
oppressive  darkness  a  voice  cries  out  in  joy.  Demeter 
is  represented  as  having  found  her  daughter.  Brazen 
gongs  resound.  The  doors  of  a  sanctuary  filled  with 
dazzling  light  are  swept  open.  The  dazed  mysts  behold 
resplendent  images  of  the  gods,  gorgeous  priests, 
glorious  scenes.  The  second  and  ecstatic  act  of  the 
drama  has  begun. 

The  secret  rites  seem  to  have  been  really  the  enact- 
ing of  a  great  and  thrilling  drama,  in  which  the  mysts, 
though  not  the  chief  actors,  were  nevertheless  not 
entirely  passive.  The  scenes  enacted  were  taken  from 
the  local  Elevsiniac  myth  as  it  had  been  preserved  by 
tradition  in  the  sacred  families  of  the  Evmolpids  and 
Keryks  regarding  Demeter's  grief  for  her  lost  daughter 
and  her  joy  when  Persephone  was  restored  to  her. 
The  myth  as  employed  in  the  mysteries  was  supposed 
to  differ  from  the  common  legend  in  many  details  and 
to  be  fully  known  only  to  the  initiated,  and  to  reveal  it 
would  be  sacrilegious.  But,  nevertheless,  since  nearly 
all  Athenians  were  initiated,  the  secret  myth  thus  be- 
came a  common  piece  of  knowledge,  and  some  of  its 
details  have  entered  into  literature.  It  was  chiefly  a 
drama  of  action  and  of  wondrous  sights,  interrupted 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  79 

now  and  then  by  the  chanting  of  legends,  or  when  the 
actors  of  the  drama  occasionally  enunciated  mystic  and 
symbolic  formulas.  This  prevailing  silence  increased 
the  mysterious  and  impressive  nature  of  the  rites. 

Of  the  officials  who  presented  the  mystic  drama,  the 
principal  ones  were  the  hierophant,  the  torch-bearer, 
the  altar  priest,  and  the  holy  herald.  In  a  certain 
portion  of  the  drama  the  hierophant  represented  the 
demiourg  or  creator  of  the  universe,  the  torch-bearer 
acted  the  part  of  the  light-giving  sun,  the  altar  priest 
represented  the  moon,  and  the  herald  impersonated  the 
messenger  god  Hermes. 

The  hierophant  was  the  most  important  personage, 
the  grand  master.  He  was  appointed  from  among  the 
Evmolpids  and  held  the  position  for  life.  When 
ordained  to  this  office  he  renounced  his  individual  name 
and  became  hieronymous,  being  usually  known  and 
spoken  of  simply  as  "the  hierophant."  It  would  seem 
that  he  lived  a  life  of  strict  chastity.  For  the  perform- 
ance of  the  duties  of  his  office  it  was  regarded  as 
necessary  that  he  possess  a  good  voice.  This  requi- 
site quality  probably  refers  to  the  masterly  manner  in 
which  he  was  expected  to  sing  his  parts  in  the  mystic 
drama. 

When  the  doors  of  the  sanctuary  were  swung  open 
and  the  blazing  light  streamed  out  upon  the  initiated, 
a  feeling  of  blissful  consolation  took  possession  of  the 
assembled  multitude.  Before  the  eyes  of  the  spectators 
the  hierophant  and  other  sacred  persons  robed  in 
glittering  vestments  continued  performing  the  mystic 
rites.  According  to  the  Elevsiniac  version  of  the 
wanderings  of  Demeter,  when  the  goddess  arrived  in 


8o  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  house  of  Keleos,  the  king  of  Elevsis,  she  refused 
all  offers  of  refreshing  nourishment  until  finally,  re- 
called from  her  moody  sadness  and  made  to  smile  by 
the  humorous  remarks  of  the  maid  lambe,  she  ordered 
that  a  beverage  be  prepared  for  her  from  meal  and 
water.  In  commemoration  of  this  mixture,  which  the 
goddess  drank,  the  mysts  after  their  fatiguirg  grop- 
ings  in  darkness  received  and  tasted  of  a  similar 
beverage  called  the  "kykeon."  They  also  seem  to  have 
partaken  of  some  other  kind  of  food. 

After  these  holier  ceremonies  were  over,  and  the 
mysts  had  seen  and  venerated  and  even  touched  such 
of  the  sacred  objects  as  were  to  be  shown  to  the 
initiates  of  the  first  night,  proceedings  of  a  less  de- 
corous nature  seem  to  have  followed.  These  were 
exhibitions  and  words  which  served  to  recall  the 
pleasantries  of  lambe  in  the  presence  of  Demeter.  In 
other  forms  of  the  legend  the  girl  who  caused  Demeter 
to  smile  was  called  Bavbo.  And  the  fragmentary 
information  which  has  been  preserved  concerning 
Bavbo  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it  tends  to  justify  the 
attacks  of  the  early  Christian  writers  who  often  ac- 
cused the  pagans  of  having  immoral  rites  in  their 
mysteries.  Still,  it  is  probable  that  the  impersonation 
of  Bavbo  in  the  mysteries  was  rather  coarsely  humor- 
istic  than  really  immoral. 

From  the  sketch  just  given  some  notion  may  be 
formed  regarding  the  proceedings  that  took  place  on 
the  night  when  the  first  set  of  Elevsiniac  mysteries  was 
enacted  and  made  known  to  the  initiated.  On  the  fol- 
lowing night  a  second  series  of  similar  revelations  was 
shown.  But  to  these  none  were  admitted  save  such 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  81 

as  had  received  the  lower  initiation  a  year  before.  The 
mysts  who  witnessed  these  higher  mysteries  received 
the  title  of  "epopts."  Since  the  name  merely  means 
"beholders,"  it  indicates  that  in  these  as  in  the  myster- 
ies of  the  preceding  night  the  rites  consisted  more  in 
acts  than  in  words.  The  greatest  event  of  this  night 
was  the  "showing  of  the  sacra,"  an  act  from  which  the 
hierophant  received  his  title.  In  this  ceremony  the 
doors  of  the  anaktoron  or  penetralia  were  opened.  No 
one  might  enter  here  save  the  hierophant  alone.  He 
stood  at  a  holy  table,  upon  and  near  which  were  the 
mysterious  and  much  revered  sacra.  These  the  hiero- 
phant exposed  one  by  one  and  held  up  to  the  worship- 
ing gaze  of  the  beholders.  Decorations,  drapery, 
illumination,  incense,  increased  the  illusion  and  added 
to  the  magnificence.  The  epopts  riveted  their  eyes 
on  the  holy  objects  in  awe  and  silence  approaching  to 
fear.  We  do  not  know  with  certainty  what  these  sacra 
were,  but  it  seems  probable  that  they  were  statues  of 
the  gods  and  sacred  relics  of  different  kinds.  They 
must  have  included  those  sacred  objects  which  had  a 
few  days  before  been  carried  with  such  pomp  to 
Athens  and  then  back  to  Elevsis  in  the  lakchos  pro- 
cession. 

Perhaps  it  is  in  this  part  of  the  initiation  that  the 
notorious  hierogamic  scene  took  place,  in  which  the 
marriage  of  Plouton  and  Persephone,  and  the  birth  of 
lakchos  were  represented.  The  hierophant  and  the 
priestess  of  Demeter,  acting  the  parts  of  Plouton  and 
Persephone,  descended  into  a  dark  retreat  to  represent 
the  manner  in  which  Persephone  had  been  carried  off 
to  the  kingdom  of  the  god  of  the  Underworld.  On 


82  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

returning  to  the  sanctuary  the  hierophant  proclaimed 
that  "the  great  lady  Brimo  has  brought  forth  the 
divine  Brimos,"  probably  announcing  by  this  formula 
the  mystic  birth  of  lakchos,  the  son  of  Plouton  and 
Persephone.  Probably  they  carried  up  from  the  hid- 
den retreat  an  image  of  the  young  lakchos  and  placed 
it  in  a  cradle  which  as  one  of  the  "sacred  objects"  was 
waiting  to  receive  him. 

Like  the  details  concerning  Bavbo,  this  gamic  scene 
and  another  scene,  from  which  nothing  has  been  pre- 
served except  the  words  "Hye  Kye,"  that  is,  "descend 
in  rain,  O  Zevs,  and  generate,"  and  another  detail 
representing  perhaps  the  birth  of  an  Elevsiniac  hero 
called  Evboulevs,  have  been  attacked  as  indecorous. 
All  that  can  be  said  in  extenuation  of  the  evident 
strangeness  of  these  details  is  that  they  appealed  to  the 
ancient  Greeks  in  a  way  absolutely  different  from  the 
manner  in  which  they  would  affect  people  of  today 
imbued  with  more  careful  principles  of  morality.  The 
attacks  of  the  ecclesiastical  writers  were  perhaps 
justifiable. 

In  commemoration  of  the  fact  that  it  was  Demeter 
who  first  taught  the  inhabitants  of  Elevsis  how  to  sow 
grain  and  to  prepare  food  from  it,  heads  of  wheat  were 
distributed  to  the  epopts,  who  received  them  in  silence 
and  reverence.  This  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
ennobling  events  of  the  mystic  rites.  And  with  this 
ceremony  the  epoptic  initiation  ended. 

It  is  quite  clear  from  abundant  literary  testimony 
that  the  general  final  effect  of  initiation  in  the  myster- 
ies was  elevating  and  consoling.  The  principal  con- 
victions which  the  initiated  carried  away  with  them 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  83 

seem  to  have  been  that  in  the  continued  existence  of 
the  soul  after  death  the  initiated  would  have  a  happier 
lot  than  the  darkness  and  punishments  which  awaited 
the  "profane."  From  the  first  beginnings  of  Greek 
literary  history  down  to  the  last  days  of  pagan  Hel- 
lenism, high-flighted  poets,  thoughtful  philosophers, 
and  careful  historians  agree  in  sounding  the  praises  of 
the  graces  bestowed  by  these  mysteries.  But  the  lesson 
taught  at  Elevsis  seems  to  have  been  one  of  enthusi- 
astic emotions  and  impressive  suggestions,  rather  than 
of  intellectual  conviction.  No  well-defined  and  formu- 
lated doctrines  were  taught,  except  in  later  times,  when 
neo-Platonic  philosophy  held  the  ascendency  in  Athens, 
and  some  of  its  precepts  were  perhaps  incorporated 
into  the  Elevsiniac  cult;  for  in  those  later  days  there 
were  hierophants  who  had  become  members  of  this 
philosophical  school.  Initiation  into  the  mysteries  im- 
posed no  obligation  of  thereafter  leading  a  better  life. 
According  to  the  opinion  of  the  initiated,  they  would 
enjoy  happiness  after  death,  not  as  a  reward  for  any 
good  or  noble  acts  while  on  earth,  but  purely  as  a 
grace  proceeding  from  the  mysteries. 

In  his  famous  painting  on  the  walls  of  the  Lesche 
in  Delphi,  representing  the  Underworld,  the  artist 
Polygnotos  represented  some  women  as  condemned  to 
keep  forever  trying  to  fill  bottomless  tubs  with  water, 
because  they  had  while  on  earth  neglected  to  be  initi- 
ated. The  cynic  philosopher  Diogenes  turned  his 
sarcasm  against  the  Elevsiniac  rites  because  pick- 
pockets and  rentgatherers,  if  initiated,  would  have  a 
happier  future  than  Epameinondas,  who  had  not  pro- 
vided himself  with  the  favor  of  the  mysteries.  Philon, 


84  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  Jew,  objected  to  them  on  the  same  grounds.  But 
the  cynic  scoffer  and  the  Hebrew  follower  of  Platon 
did  not  represent  the  common  Hellenic  feeling  in  re- 
gard to  Elevsis,  as  is  evident  from  the  multitudes  who 
crowded  thither  for  initiation  every  year  for  more  than 
ten  centuries.  Elevsis  was  even  in  the  last  days  of  Hel- 
lenic paganism  "a  bond  of  union  in  the  human  race." 
For  few  indeed  are  those  who  viewed  the  ques- 
tion of  secret  things  with  the  philosophic  independence 
of  Demonax,  who  would  not  be  initiated  because  he 
thought  that  whatever  was  good  ought  to  be  promul- 
gated broadcast,  and  what  was  bad  ought  to  be  exposed. 

After  the  initiation  ceremonies  were  over,  the  plemo- 
choan  rites  were  performed.  These  seem  to  have  been 
libations  in  memory  of  the  dead.  Then  all  prepared 
to  return  to  Athens,  unless,  as  was  the  case  in  fixed 
years,  if  not  annually,  many  prolonged  their  stay  for 
two  or  three  days  in  order  to  celebrate  a  series  of 
athletic  and  stadiac  games.  Properly  enough,  the 
prizes  offered  in  the  contests  celebrated  here  in  the 
territory  sacred  to  the  corn  goddess  Demeter  were 
measures  of  barley,  reaped  perhaps  in  the  sacred 
Rharian  plain. 

The  return  to  Athens  took  place  in  the  form  of  a 
procession,  for  the  god  lakchos  had  to  be  escorted  back 
to  his  sanctuary  with  becoming  pomp.  A  short  dis- 
tance outside  of  the  city  of  Athens  there  was  a  bridge 
over  the  Kephisos  River,  which  in  the  classic  days  of 
antiquity  was  as  famous  as  was  the  statue  of  the 
Pasquino  in  the  days  of  the  Humanists  in  Rome.  The 
returning  mysts  and  epopts  were  encountered  here  by 
an  immense  crowd  of  sportive  Athenians,  and  assailed 


THE  MYSTIC  RITES  OF  ELEVSIS  85 

by  all  kinds  of  raillery,  jibes,  and  quodlibets.  The 
initiated  vigorously  answered  this  shower  of  ribald 
darts  by  retorting  in  kind.  Many  in  the  crowd  wore 
masks.  Noted  public  men  and  their  acts  were  open  to 
the  scorchings  and  criticisms  of  wit.  Coarse  vulgar- 
isms could  not  have  been  absent.  After  this  battle  of 
"gephyrisms"  was  over,  all  proceeded  on  to  the  city, 
where  the  statue  of  lakchos  was  replaced  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, and  the  rites  of  Elevsis  were  finished  for  that 
year. 

Even  after  Greece  lost  her  independence  and  became 
a  Roman  province  the  mysteries  continued  to  flourish. 
The  Romans  had  accepted  Hellenic  culture,  and  were 
not  to  be  excluded  from  Elevsis ;  and  great  numbers  of 
them  took  the  trouble  of  being  initiated,  including  sev- 
eral of  the  emperors.  But  the  sun  of  paganism  began 
to  lose  its  splendor.  Julian,  in  his  attempt  to  recall  the 
disappearing  forms  of  the  past,  tried  to  arouse  new 
enthusiasm  for  the  mysteries.  In  the  year  364,  the 
Chris  'an  emperor  Valentinian  issued  an  edict  forbid- 
ding all  nocturnal  heathen  celebrations,  but,  yielding  to 
the  prayers  of  the  pro-consul  of  Achaia,  made  an 
excepdor  in  favor  of  the  cult  of  Demeter  at  Elevsis. 
But  the  doomed  end  was  near,  for  the  Great  Master 
of  higher  mysteries,  the  Nazarene,  had  conquered. 
The  house  of  the  Evmolpids,  which  for  a  thousand 
years  had  controlled  the  Elevsiniac  cult  and  from 
which  the  hierophant  was  always  to  be  chosen,  perished 
heirless.  Toward  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century 
the  hierophant  who  initiated  the  rhetorician  Maximus 
and  his  biographer  Evnapios  was  indeed  an  Evmolpid, 
but  he  was  the  last  of  his  line.  In  the  year  394,  the 


86  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

emperor  Theodosios  the  Second  ordered  the  temple  at 
Elevsis  to  be  closed.  Taking  advantage,  however,  of 
some  favorable  opportunity,  the  wrecked  but  stubborn 
adherers  to  the  old  cult  called  a  Mithras  priest  from 
Thespiae  and  set  him  up  as  hierophant  in  the  temple  of 
Demeter.  But  the  usurper's  exaltation  was  brief.  In 
the  year  395,  Alaric  and  his  army  of  Visigoths  came  to 
Elevsis  and  completely  pillaged  it.  Earthquakes  and 
all-destroying  time  and  the  hands  of  man  have  con- 
tinued the  work  of  desolation.  And  now  Elevsis  is 
merely  a  hillside  overlooked  by  a  mediaeval  Frankish 
tower  and  covered  with  intricate  heaps  of  ruins  which 
the  natives  used  to  carry  off  as  building  material  for 
their  huts,  where  English  dilettanti  and  French  sa- 
vants and  Greek  archaeologists  have  loved  to  make 
researches,  and  among  which  the  daughters  of  Illyrian 
invaders,  who  dwell  near  by,  step  their  dances  to  Alba- 
nian music  on  the  feast  days  of  their  patron  saints. 


DELPHI 

No  fertile  fields  in  near  vicinity,  nor  grassy  pasture- 
lands,  nor  seahaven  that  might  lure  the  gain-greed  of 
merchants  gave  existence  and  fame  to  Delphi.  The 
site  was  not  one  on  which  a  prosperous  city  could  be 
founded.  All  the  undying  reputation  of  Delphi  is  due 
to  the  splendid  sun-god  Apollon,  who  here  chose  to 
dwell  and  here  had  a  shrine  wherein  his  ministers  pro- 
fessed to  reveal  to  men  the  mysteries  of  futurity.  The 
shrine  may  have  been  established  by  the  pristine  in- 
habitants of  the  neighboring  fever-laden  plains,  pos- 
sibly Boeotians,  who  in  summer  time  came  with  their 
flocks  to  these  elevated  regions  to  enjoy  the  pure  air  of 
Parnasos  and  the  fresh  waters  of  Kastalia  and  Kas- 
sotis. 

The  colossal  grandeur  of  the  locality  rendered  it  a 
fitting  shrine  for  the  habitation  of  a  great  god.  Two 
solid  cliffs  which  the  Delphians  called  Hyampeia  and 
Navplia,  perpendicular  and  majestic,  wall  and  shade 
the  stony  gorge  from  which  Kastalia  flows,  and  where 
the  holy  precinct  begins.  This  precinct  is  near  the  top 
of  a  long  declivity  now  greened  to  some  extent  with 
olive  and  other  trees,  which  descends  to  a  great  depth 
down  to  the  rocky  bed  of  the  torrent  Pleistos.  West- 
ward from  Delphi  a  winding  road  gives  communica- 
tion with  the  olive-planted  fields  of  Amphissa,  and  with 
two  or  three  ports  on  the  gulf  of  Korinth.  But  the 
most  ancient  worshipers  came  up  to  Delphi  neither 
from  the  plain  of  Amphissa  nor  from  the  sea;  but 

87 


88  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

rather  from  some  eastward  district,  perhaps  from 
Boeotia. 

The  town  which  grew  up  round  the  sanctuary 
existed  since  prehistoric  times.  There  was  a  settlement 
here  at  least  two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  as  is 
proven  by  objects  found  in  ancient  graves  which  the 
French  excavators  have  opened,  and  by  fragments  of 
primitive  pottery  which  these  scholars  have  gathered 
from  under  the  foundations  of  Apollon's  temple  and 
elsewhere.  These  graves  date  from  all  the  succeeding 
ages  from  the  times  when  the  Mykenlanders  flourished 
down  to  the  sixth  century  after  Christ. 

After  the  establishing  of  the  oracle  and  the  founda- 
tion of  the  town,  the  history  of  Delphi  is  in  great  part 
the  story  of  how  the  neighboring  tribes  successively 
strove  to  get  possession  of  the  shrine,  of  how  the  larger 
states  of  Greece  jealously  used  to  try  to  exercise  a 
preponderating  influence  over  the  mantic  ministers  of 
Apollon,  of  how  foreign  nations  and  potentates  hon- 
ored the  god  and  sought  his  foreseeing  guidance,  and 
of  how  countless  numbers  of  individuals  from  all  ranks 
of  society  disclosed  to  him  their  longings  and  troubles, 
expecting  assistance. 

When  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  were  written,  the 
town  and  the  shrine  were  known  by  their  more  primi- 
tive appellation  of  the  "Pytho."  In  extant  literature 
the  later  name  of  "Delphi"  occurs  possibly  for  the 
first  time  in  an  anonymous  hymn  in  praise  of  Artemis, 
the  sister  of  Apollon,  and  then  in  a  fragment  of  the 
writings  of  Herakleitos.  Even  after  the  general  prev- 
alence of  the  later  name,  the  earlier  one  was  never 
forgotten  nor  less  appreciated.  It  occurs  again  and 


DELPHI  89 

again  in  the  lyric  songs  of  Pindar  and  in  the  dramas 
of  the  tragic  poets.  It  was  a  genuine  place-name,  while 
"Delphi"  is  a  people's  name,  and  signifies  not  the  place 
and  the  town,  but  rather  the  tribe  of  Delphmen  who 
dwelt  there.  In  its  infantile  days  the  Delphic  com- 
munity was  neither  independent  nor  autonomous.  Five 
hundred  and  ninety  years  before  Christ  the  Delphmen 
by  a  ten-years'  war  of  successful  issue  sundered  the 
allegiance  which  long  had  bound  them  to  the  town  of 
Krisa.  Thereafter  the  Delphmen  were  usually  masters 
of  the  town  and  shrine,  but  nevertheless  more  than 
once  had  the  humiliation  of  beholding  their  power 
appropriated  and  administered  for  longer  or  shorter 
intervals  by  other  clans. 

The  most  imposing  and  revered  structure  here  was 
the  massive  fane  of  the  Pythian  Apollon.  It  was  at  least 
five  times  destroyed  or  injured  and  four  times  rebuilt  or 
repaired.  Fire  and  earthquake  and  marauders  were 
the  leveling  forces.  The  newest  restoration  was  com- 
pleted shortly  after  the  year  67  of  our  era,  when  Nero 
visited  Delphi  and  ordered  that  the  temple  be  recon- 
structed. The  ruins  of  its  foundation  still  are  visible. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  owing  to  its  time-honored 
sacredness  and  to  its  secluded  situation,  which  was  an 
appreciable  advantage  during  the  ages  of  war  and  bar- 
baric incursions,  Delphi  never  became  entirely  desolate. 
The  Delphmen  became  Christians  and  were  at  one  time 
sufficiently  numerous  and  important  to  have  a  resident 
bishop.  This  was  before  the  seventh  century.  Hiero- 
kles,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  wrote  a 
Travelers'  Guide,  mentions  Delphi,  but  tells  us  very 
little  about  what  the  city  then  was.  After  him  the 


90  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

magic  name  appears  no  more  on  the  pages  of  history 
or  chronicle.  The  aged  town  soon  must  have  dwindled 
into  a  most  silent-lived  hamlet.  A  century  ago  no 
Delphman  called  his  village  by  its  classic  name.  Like- 
wise the  steep  sides  of  the  gorge  from  which  Kastalia's 
streams  flow  out  had  also  changed  their  appellations. 
The  eastern  or  Hyampeian  cliff  was  known  as  "Phlem- 
boukos,"  and  Navplia,  the  western  side  of  the  gorge, 
had  become  "Rodini."  The  Kastalian  fountain  had 
been  converted  into  "the  well  of  Saint  John,"  and  the 
Kassotid  spring  which  used  to  inspire  the  Pythiad 
priestess  had  been  transferred  to  the  patronage  of 
Saint  Nicholas.  The  town  itself  was  simply  spoken 
of  as  Kastri,  or  "The  Camp." 

Some  years  ago,  however,  "The  Camp"  was  pur- 
chased by  the  French  government.  The  Kastriots 
were  moved  to  another  site  farther  west.  In  1892, 
French  scholars  began  the  toilful  work  of  systematic 
excavation.  Since  then  they  have  unearthed  most  of 
what  had  not  been  totally  destroyed  of  Pythiad  Delphi. 
And  by  wandering  over  the  excavated  region  and 
through  the  treasure-filled  museum  it  is  now  possible 
with  the  assistance  of  literature  to  conjure  up  mentally 
a  glorious  picture  of  what  Delphi  formerly  was. 

Apollon  was  not  the  original  deity  of  Delphi.  Ac- 
cording to  the  local  theologians  the  most  primeval 
shrine  here  was  sacred  to  Gaea,  the  spirit  of  the  earth. 
After  the  cult  of  Apollon  had  insinuated  itself,  it 
quickly  became  so  pre-eminent  as  to  overshadow  all 
the  preceding  cults.  It  did  not  annul  these  earlier 
cults,  however,  nor  did  it  preclude  the  introduction 
of  the  new  cults.  Gsea  and  Themis  and  Poseidon  and 


DELPHI  91 

Dionysos  and  Athena  and  other  deities  had  their  re- 
spective shrines. 

Apollon's  cult  was  originally  the  worship  of  the  sun. 
Helios,  the  sun-god,  was  an  object  of  adoration  among 
almost  all  the  Hellenic  tribes.  But  at  Delphi  the  deity 
Helios  came  to  be,  in  the  course  of  time,  not  the 
physical  luminary  of  the  heavens,  but  rather  a  personi- 
fication of  a  spiritual  light  which  enlighteneth  man- 
kind. The  change  in  the  god's  attributes  may,  at  least 
for  convenience,  be  associated  with  the  change  in 
the  form  of  his  name,  from  "Helios"  to  "Apollon." 
This  ennobling  spiritualization  of  sun  worship  and  its 
transformation  into  a  kind  of  ideal  religion  may  be 
accredited  to  the  local  theologians  of  Delphi.  Probably 
it  was  they  who  first  gave  currency  to  the  new  name 
"Apollon,"  as  the  appellation  of  a  personified  spiritual 
and  intellectual  light.  From  Delphi  the  new  and  higher 
doctrine  was  carried  into  other  parts  of  Greece,  and  in 
most  places  of  note,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Rhodos,  the  altars  of  Helios  were  converted  into  altars 
of  Apollon. 

But  Apollon  never  entirely  ceased  from  being  a  sun- 
god.  By  his  solar  powers  he  overcomes  the  god  of 
darkness,  clears  the  misty  air,  dries  the  moisture  from 
the  rocks,  melts  the  chilly  snows,  and,  bursting  out 
through  the  clouds,  stops  the  rainstorms.  This  is  the 
"Pythian"  Apollon;  and  the  slimy  Python  or  dragon 
which  he  slays  with  his  sunbeams  or  arrows  is  the  chilly 
demon  of  night  and  floods  and  frost.  In  art,  the 
slayer  of  the  dragon  came  to  be  represented  as  the 
slayer  of  the  lizard.  Hence  the  beautiful  statue  by 
Praxiteles. 


92  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

In  his  higher  and  more  intellectual  character  the 
god  assumed  a  new  name;  he  was  known  not  only  as 
the  "Pythian,"  but  also  as  the  "Delphian"  Apollon. 
Many  of  the  characteristics  that  distinguish  the 
"Delph:an"  from  the  "Pythian"  cult  were  said  to  have 
been  introduced  into  Delphic  theology  by  Kretans  from 
the  town  of  Knosos.  Likewise  the  religion  of  the 
island  of  Delos,  which,  according  to  other  ante-classic 
traditions,  was  the  birthplace  of  Apollon  and  his  sister, 
had  some  influence  on  the  beliefs  and  rites  of  Delphi. 
Thus,  by  natural  evolution,  and  under  various  influ- 
ences from  far  and  near,  did  the  worship  of  the  sun 
come  to  be  one  of  the  purest  and  most  intellectual 
forms  of  Hellenic  religion.  As  sun-god  he  was  the 
measurer  of  years  and  of  time.  As  holding  time  under 
his  control  he  was  master  of  the  past,  the  present,  and 
the  future.  Thus  he  knew  all  events  that  ever  hap- 
pened, and  all  that  were  going  to  happen  in  future 
time.  As  god  of  time  he  naturally  became  the  god  of 
prophecy,  and  his  shrine  was  the  most  reputable  pro- 
phetic center  of  the  Hellenic  pagan  world. 

Being  the  god  of  intellectuality  and  spirituality  and 
inspiration,  his  ministers  adopted  and  disseminated 
various  doctrines  regarding  the  higher  destinies  and 
duties  of  men.  The  human  soul  did  not  decay  and 
perish  with  the  body,  but  lived  forever  in  conscious 
existence.  The  souls  of  the  departed  should  therefore 
not  lapse  from  the  memory  of  their  surviving  relations 
and  friends  and  countrymen,  but  should  be  duly  hon- 
ored by  proper  rites  and  libations  and  sacrifices.  The 
condition  of  the  soul  in  its  existence  beyond  the  grave 
depended  much  on  the  deeds  performed  during  a  man's 


DELPHI  .  93 

life  on  earth.  Accordingly  a  doctrine  recognizing  sin 
was  believed  in.  But  what  was  equally  salutary  and 
elevating,  the  possibility  and  obligation  of  atonement 
was  a  fundamental  belief.  With  terrible  punishment 
did  Apollon  visit  sinners  and  criminals,  including  those 
whose  transgressions  were  condonable,  but  who  had 
not  performed  the  necessary  liturgical  rites  of  purifi- 
cation and  acts  of  atonement.  If  we  possessed  the 
complete  code  of  morals  and  philosophy  that  emanated 
from  Delphi,  or  if  we  only  had  Polygnotos'  wonderful 
pictures  of  the  Underworld,  we  would  find  both  the 
code  and  the  pictures  to  be  for  the  most  part  most 
edifying  documents.  The  "Gnothi  seavton"  taught 
every  pilgrim  that  "the  proper  study  of  mankind  is 
man ;  "  and  the  "meden  agan"  urged  him  to  avoid  all 
excess  in  things  that  are  otherwise  good. 

Apart  from  the  daily  services  that  were  enacted 
regularly  at  Delphi,  there  were  other  more  solemn 
ceremonies  that  were  performed  only  once  a  year,  or 
once  every  fourth  year,  or,  in  the  earlier  ages,  once 
every  eighth  year.  At  these  annual  or  rarer  festivals 
great  wars  the  concourse  of  pilgrims.  Some  came  to 
consult  the  oracle.  Others  desired  to  offer  some  sacri- 
fice to  Apollon  or  to  some  other  favorite  god  or  patron 
hero.  Others  were  attracted  by  the  scenic  splendor  of 
the  ritual,  or  by  the  gorgeous  processions,  or  by  the 
various  intellectual  and  athletic  and  agonistic  contests. 
Others  presented  themselves  as  poets,  or  as  wrestlers, 
or  runners,  or  leapers,  or  javelin  throwers  in  the  con- 
tests that  always  followed  the  religious  ceremonies,  or 
rather  were  an  integral  or  complementary  part  of  these 
ceremonies.  Others  came  in  hopes  that  their  well- 


94  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

trained  steeds  might  win  for  their  owners  glory  and  a 
laurel  crown  in  the  hippodrome. 

In  these  contests  music  and  poetry  held  exalted  rank, 
for  Apollon  was  the  leader  and  inspirer  of  the  nine 
muses.  After  the  contest  of  chanted  hymns  was  over, 
such  poets  as  were  adjudged  worthy  of  laureate  honors 
might  cause  their  verses  to  be  incised  on  marble  monu- 
ments to  be  erected  within  the  holy  precinct.  Frag- 
ments of  such  stones  have  been  unearthed,  containing 
not  only  the  words  of  the  hymns,  but  also  the  musical 
notation  of  the  melody  to  which  the  hymns  had  been 
sung.  Apollon  loved  his  imitators,  the  poets. 

The  sacral  processions  at  these  festal  concourses 
must  have  been  highly  picturesque  on  account  of  their 
unaffected  but  gorgeous  naturalness.  A  fictitious  de- 
scription of  such  a  procession  occurs  in  the  story  called 
"^Ethiopian  Adventures"  written  in  the  fourth  century 
after  Christ  by  Heliodoros  who  afterward  seems  to 
have  become  a  Christian  and  to  have  been  consecrated 
bishop  of  Thessalic  Trikka.  At  the  time  when  his 
Grace  directed  the  affairs  of  the  church  of  Trikka, 
Delphi  still  continued  to  be  a  venerated  shrine.  This 
Heliodoros  describes  a  procession  organized  by  The- 
agenes  and  his  retainers  who  had  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
Delphi  on  the  occasion  of  the  feast  of  Neoptolemos, 
the  son  of  Achilles.  Theagenes  lived  in  Hypate,  an 
,/Enian  town.  He  claimed  to  be  descended  from 
Achilles,  and  consequently  was  the  chief  director  of  the 
ceremonies  round  the  grave  and  shrine  of  Neoptolemos. 
Heliodoros  represents  the  Egyptian  Kalasiris  as  nar- 
rating to  friends  at  a  symposium  the  following  descrip- 
tion of  the  procession : 


DELPHI  95 

At  the  head  of  the  ceremonious  train  came  a  hecatomb  of 
bulls  for  immolation,  led  by  rural  men  in  rustic  habiliments. 
Their  white  tunics  were  looped  up  under  their  girdles  at  one  side. 
In  his  right  hand,  each  man  brandished  a  two-edged  axe.  The 
right  arm  was  bare  to  the  shoulder.  The  bulls  were  all  black, 
with  proud  necks  gently  arching  upwards;  with  horns  smooth, 
straight  and  sharp-pointed.  Of  some  the  horns  were  gilded; 
others  were  bedecked  with  wreaths  of  flowers.  Their  shanks 
were  well  curved  and  their  shoulders  deep.  The  number  was 
one  hundred  exactly,  so  as  to  be  a  hecatomb  in  truth. 

Behind  the  bulls  were  driven  in  manifold  variety  numer- 
ous herds  of  other  victims,  each  kind  being  in  a  distinct  group. 
Flute-players  and  pipers  produced  a  ritualistic  melody,  fore- 
tokening the  sacrifices. 

Next  after  these  droves  and  herdsmen,  there  came  Thessal 
virgins  shapely  and  stately;  with  tresses  loose,  hanging  in  wave- 
lets over  their  shoulders.  They  were  separated  into  two  bands. 
In  the  first  band,  some  carried  baskets  filled  with  flowers  and 
fruits.  Others  had  panniers  of  cakes  and  of  perfumes  and 
incense  which  loaded  the  air  with  fragrancy.  They  carried 
these  things  on  their  heads.  Their  hands  being  otherwise  free, 
they  kept  hold  of  each  other  and  were  marching  in  rhythmic 
step,  with  movements  forward  and  obliquely.  Thus  as  well  as 
walking  onward,  they  were  also  dancing.  The  rhythmic  music 
which  they  obeyed  in  their  evolutions  and  steps  was  furnished 
by  the  second  band  of  virgins;  for  these  were  havng  the  privi- 
lege of  chanting  the  hymn  of  the  feast.  This  hymn  was  a  prayer 
to  Neoptolemos  and  a  eulogy  of  Thetis  and  Pelevs  and  their 
son  Achilles,  the  progenitors  of  the  hero  Neoptolemos.  The 
verses  of  the  hymn  were  about  as  follows : 

Thetis  the  goddess  I  sing, 
Thetis  of  golden  hair, 

Her  the  immortal  child 

Born  from  Nerevs  in  the  sea ; 

Who  by  Jupiter's  promptings, 
Married  herself  to  Pelevs; 

Her  the  delight  of  the  sea, 
Lovely  as  Venus  we  deem; 


g6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Mother  of  him  whose  spear 

Ever  was  anxious  for  war, 
Him  whose  fame  in  Greece 

Is  bright  as  the  lightning  of  Zevs, 
Godlike  Achilles;  him 

Whose  glory  reaches  to  Heaven, 
Him,  whose  son  and  Pyrrha's 

The  great  Neoptolemos  was; 
Merciless  fighter  against 

Trojans,  but  savior  of  Greece. 
O  Neoptolemos,  Hero, 

Be  thou  propitious  to  us. 
Blessed  art  thou,  for  thy  grave 

Is  here  in  Pythiad  earth. 
Graciously  deem  to  accept 

The  gifts  that  we  offer  to  thee. 
Guard  and  defend  us  thy  people 
And  country  from  every  fear. 
Thetis  the  goddess  I  sing, 

Thetis  of  golden  hair. 

Such  was  the  canticle.  Admirable  was  the  harmonious 
movement  of  the  dancers.  The  echo  of  their  measured  pacings 
kept  treading  exact  time  with  the  meters  of  the  hymn.  The 
onlookers  were  fascinated  no  less  by  the  melodious  sounds  than 
by  the  rhythmic  movements.  The  choral  strains  seemed  to  be 
luring  them  to  leap  up  and  join  the  choir  of  dancers.  But 
their  attention  was  soon  diverted  to  those  who  followed.  For 
next  in  the  procession  came  fifty  young  men  on  Thessalic  horses. 
In  their  midst  was  their  chieftain,  conspicuous  beyond  all 
words  of  description.  Twenty-five  rode  in  front  of  him,  and 
twenty-five  were  behind  him.  Their  sandals  were  laced  round 
their  ankles  with  thongs  of  scarlet  leather.  Their  blue-bordered 
mantles  of  white  were  fastened  on  their  breasts  with  brooches 
of  gold.  Their  steeds  were  fired  with  the  ttncurbed  spirit  of 
the  boundless  plains  of  Thessaly,  where  they  had  been  reared. 
They  champed  their  bits  and  would  like  to  spit  them  from 
their  foaming  mouths,  preferring  to  be  guided  not  by  the  reins 
but  by  their  riders'  word  of  command.  Their  caparisons  were 


DELPHI  97 

ornamented  with  silver  and  gold,  as  though  their  riders  were 
vying  with  each  other  in  this  respect. 

Such  was  the  display  which  Theagenes  and  the 
/Enians  made,  in  this  festive  pomp. 

The  procession  directed  its  course  to  the  grave  of 
Neoptolemos.  Three  times  did  the  Thessal  horsemen 
prance  round  the  hero's  tomb.  Then  at  a  given  signal 
all  the  victims  were  slaughtered  in  sacrifice.  Piles  of 
fagots  were  placed  on  a  spacious  altar  near  the  grave. 
Pieces  of  meat  from  the  slaughtered  animals  were  laid 
on  the  fagot-piles.  Then  the  priestess  of  Artemis 
approached  and  gave  to  the  ^Enian  chieftain  a  blazing 
torch  of  holy  fire,  with  which  he  ignited  the  fagots. 
Thus  were  the  sacrificial  meats  consumed  by  the  flames. 
After  this,  the  priest  of  Apollon  poured  out  a  libation 
to  the  hero,  and  the  sacred  part  of  the  ceremony  was  at 
an  end. 

There  were  many  objects  of  interest  at  Delphi. 
Somewhere  near  to  the  great  temple  of  Apollon  was 
erected  a  monumental  stone  called  the  "Omphalos." 
It  was  supposed  to  indicate  a  point  equidistant  from 
all  the  extremities  of  the  earth.  Different  rich  cities 
had  built  treasure-houses  at  Delphi,  in  which  were  kept 
the  utensils  and  paraphernalia  needed  for  their  sacred 
ceremonies.  Individuals  and  states  erected  costly 
monuments  and  dedicated  precious  votive  offerings  in 
the  temples.  In  the  eighth  century  before  Christ,  when 
the  ninth  book  of  the  Iliad  was  composed,  the  shrine  of 
Apollon  was  already  rich  in  its  quantity  of  votive 
wealth.  This  wealth  continued  to  increase,  until  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ,  when  portentous  sacri- 
legious despoliations  were  perpetrated.  The  men  of 


98  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Phokis  plundered  the  temple,  and  their  wives  were 
seen  wearing  necklaces  and  other  historic  jewelry  that 
had  been  kept  for  centuries  in  Apollon's  house.  In  the 
first  century  before  Christ,  Sulla,  the  Roman  dictator, 
mulcted  the  shrine  of  its  gold  and  silver,  joking  at  the 
pious  hesitancy  of  those  who  asserted  that  they  heard 
Apollon  twang  his  harp  in  threatful  anger  when  they 
entered  the  sanctuary  to  rob  it.  Nero  sent  hence  500 
statues  to  Rome.  Constantine,  the  emperor,  carried  off 
statues  and  monuments  for  the  decoration  of  his  new 
Roman  capital  at  Byzantion  on  the  Bosporos.  Among 
the  objects  thus  brought  to  Constantinople  was  the 
brazen  column  of  the  Three  Serpents  upon  the  coils  of 
which  were  engraved  the  names  of  the  cities  that  had 
aided  in  driving  the  Persian  invaders  out  of  Greece. 
The  mutilated  monument  still  stands  in  the  Hippo- 
drome of  Stamboul.  But  the  Phokians  and  Sulla  and 
Nero  and  Constantine  were  only  a  few  of  the  many 
despoilers. 

Many  of  the  votive  offerings,  from  the  most  pre- 
cious to  the  most  insignificant,  were  intended  to  be 
testimonials  of  gratitude  in  return  for  advice  or  en- 
lightenment vouchsafed  by  the  oracle.  Every  category 
of  life-problems  was  represented  in  the  questions  which 
Apollon  was  called  upon  to  solve.  Commonwealths 
sought  his  advice  before  undertaking  to  establish  new 
colonies,  and  kings  before  declaring  war.  Seamen 
consulted  him  about  their  voyages,  farmers  about  their 
fields  and  crops,  and  negotiators  about  their  loans  and 
debts.  Men  who  were  going  to  travel  asked  for  fore- 
knowledge concerning  their  future  adventures.  The 
avaricious  requested  direction  in  the  amassment  of 


DELPHI  99 

wealth.  Young  men  solicited  information  concerning 
the  advisability  of  getting  married.  Isyllos,  the  poet, 
wrote  a  paean  in  honor  of  the  god  Asklepios,  and  then 
inquired  from  Apollon  if  it  would  be  proper  and  lawful 
to  engrave  the  ode  on  stone. 

The  official  mediators  between  the  invisible  god  and 
his  questioning  worshipers  were  the  Pythiad  sibyls. 
The  manner  by  which  they  were  ordained  and  ap- 
pointed to  the  discharge  of  this  exalted  function  we  do 
not  know.  It  was  required  that  they  be  pre-eminent 
among  the  women  of  Delphi  both  by  descent  and  by 
integrity  of  life.  In  the  ages  when  the  concourse  of 
questioners  was  great,  two  or  three  sibyls  might  hold 
the  prophetic  office  contemporaneously,  so  as  to  relieve 
each  other  in  rotation  from  the  exhausting  strain.  But 
in  later  times,  when  the  credit  of  the  shrine  began  to 
wane,  one  sibyl  sufficed.  Besides  the  sibyl  or  Pythiad 
priestess  there  were  scribes  and  other  functionaries 
who  recorded  her  utterances,  and  assisted  in  the  cere- 
monies that  surrounded  the  act  of  prophesying.  Before 
uttering  an  oracle,  the  priestess  robed  herself  in  official 
raiment,  drank  water  from  the  Kassotid  fountain,  and 
chewed  a  mixture  which  contained  laurel  leaves  and 
barley.  She  seated  herself  on  a  high  tripod  near  which 
a  current  of  prophetic  air,  the  "divinus  afflatus/'  issued 
from  an  opening  in  the  earth.  Soon  she  fell  into  a  kind 
of  ecstatic  fit,  and  uttered  the  sentences  which  were 
reputed  to  be  prophecies.  Her  utterances  were  usually 
in  verse,  and  her  favorite  lines  were  hexameters.  In 
later  times,  when  the  Greek  language  became  too  un- 
yielding and  rigid  for  the  easy  composition  of  extem- 
pore verses,  the  priestess  more  frequently  deigned  to 


100  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

make  her  responses  in  prose.  But  in  imperial  times, 
when  a  pedantic  love  for  antiquity  influenced  many 
professions,  the  Pythiad  priestess  resumed  the  more 
frequent  use  of  hexameters. 

The  pilgrims  who  wished  to  be  favored  by  a  re- 
sponse from  the  oracle  began  their  immediate  prepara- 
tion by  a  symbolic  purification  in  the  waters  of 
Kastalia.  Perhaps  they  sprinkled  themselves  with  it 
as  did  Kalasiris  in  Heliodoros'  story.  They  made  an 
offering  of  a  cake  and  a  sheep  or  goat  or  other  more 
valuable  animal.  By  lot  they  were  in  turn  admitted  to 
the  sacred  penetralia  where  they  beheld  the  frenzied 
sibyl  seated  on  the  tripod  surrounded  by  priests  and 
attendants.  Specially  favored  persons  might  enter  at 
once,  without  having  to  wait  for  their  opportunity  by 
lot.  Women,  it  seems,  were  not  permitted  to  enter  the 
room  of  prophecy. 

For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  oracle  deeply 
influenced  the  fortunes  not  only  of  Greeks  but  also  of 
strangers.  Many  noted  men  sought  to  have  their 
course  of  action  guided  or  sanctioned  by  the  sibyl, 
from  the  day  when  Agamemnon,  king  of  men,  stepped 
across  her  threshold  and  asked  about  the  fate  of  his 
expedition  which  he  was  undertaking  against  Ilion, 
down  to  the  day  when  Julian  the  apostate  sought  her 
counsel  in  his  war  against  Sapor  of  Persia.  During 
the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era  Delphi  was  still  a 
favorite  pilgrimage.  In  the  reign  of  Augustus,  the 
writer  Konon  could  still  truthfully  represent  the 
prevalent  Hellenic  conviction  when  he  stated  that  the 
Delphian  Apollon  was  yet  the  most  reliable  god  of 
vaticination.  But  the  inevitable  end  was  approaching ; 


DELPHI  101 

and  so  far  as  the  influence  of  the  Delphic  priestess  was 
concerned,  the  decree  of  Theodosios  which  he  issued  in 
the  year  385,  forbidding  all  consultation  with  the 
oracles,  was  almost  superfluous.  The  voice  of  the 
ancient  sibyl  was  rarely  heard.  When  for  a  second 
time  the  emperor  Julian,  that  devotee  of  the  waning 
cults,  asked  for  her  prophetic  help,  she  told  the  quaestor 
Oribasios  to  bring  back  to  the  emperor  the  response 
that  "the  holy  shrine  is  desolate.  Phrebos  no  longer  has 
a  shelter  there,  nor  prophetic  laurels.  His  fountains 
no  longer  speak,  and  the  mantic  waters  are  dried  up." 


IN  BCEOTIA 

Boeotia  is  a  much-decried  land.  Its  climate  has 
always  been  insalubrious,  and  its  inhabitants  have 
always  borne  a  unique  reputation  for  stupidity.  What 
attractions  can  such  ill-famed  country  hold  out  to  the 
wanderer,  and  how  can  it  claim  the  interest  of  the 
scholar?  Twenty-five  hundred  years  have  rolled  away 
since,  in  the  theater  of  Dionysos,  the  playwright  Phere- 
krates  blared  out  his  warning  that  "every  man  of 
sense  should  keep  far  away  from  Boeotia."  Phere- 
krates'  splendid  comedies  have  all  perished,  but  this 
bitter  verse  is  one  of  the  few  lines  that  have  been 
preserved,  and  is  familiar  to  every  Hellenist;  such  is 
the  vitality  of  a  word  of  reproach  when  dexterously 
spoken.  But  nevertheless,  the  much-abused  country 
is  not  without  interest;  it  was  the  cradle  of  all  kinds 
of  mythic  and  legendary  lore;  its  long  history  has 
been  full  of  strange  and  uninvestigated  vicissitudes. 
As  anyone  may  see  who  reads  the  fragmentary  notes 
that  once  were  ascribed  to  the  pen  of  the  historian 
Dikaearch,  this  land  possessed  some  attractions  even 
for  that  unknown  traveler  who,  along  with  plentiful 
slander  of  his  own  investigation,  has  kept  for  us  this 
line  of  Pherekrates;  for  he  took  the  laborious  pains 
of  visiting  on  foot  many  of  the  principal  towns  and 
shrines  and  sights  of  the  land  which  he  was  reviling. 

It  was  Boeotia's  fortune  or  misfortune  to  lie 
adjacent  to  Attika.  From  the  earliest  historic  days 
there  existed  hate  and  jealousy  between  Thebes  the 


IN  BCEOTIA  103 

leading  city  of  Boeotia  and  Athens  the  center  of  life 
in  Attika.  Fate  had  it  that  the  history  of  Boeotia 
should  become  known  to  the  world,  not  through  native 
but  through  Attic  writers.  Woe  to  a  reputation  which 
is  to  be  molded  and  transmitted  to  posterity  by  a 
hostile  neighbor.  From  the  Attic  writers  the  lettered 
men  of  Rome  and  all  subsequent  schools  of  Europe 
have  borrowed  their  views  regarding  Boeotia;  and 
thus  "crassus  aer,"  "pingues  Thebani,"  and  "sus 
Boeotia"  always  enter  into  our  notion  of  the  character 
of  the  Boeotians  and  their  country. 

Boeotia  consists  of  two  great  plains  separated  by  a 
ridge  of  hills,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  chains 
of  mountains.  The  southern  plain  is  undulating;  the 
waters  which  flow  down  into  it  from  Kithaeron  and 
Helikon  easily  move  off  to  the  Evboean  Gulf  through 
the  Asopos  River.  But  the  northern  plain  is  perfectly 
flat,  and  is  completely  shut  off  from  the  sea,  so  that 
the  streams  which  flow  into  it  have  no  outlets  except 
through  underground  tunnels  or  "katabothra"  which 
the  water  has  made  for  itself  under  the  mountains. 

These  natural  underground  channels  have  always 
had  a  tendency  to  choke  up,  and  a  portion  of  this 
northern  plain  has  always  been  a  lake  or  marsh, 
known  as  Kopais.  From  the  earliest  times,  however, 
the  inhabitants  round  Kopais  often  took  pains  to  keep 
the  katabothra  open,  and  to  keep  the  lake  at  its  mini- 
mum size,  in  order  thus  to  be  able  to  cultivate  as  much 
as  possible  the  better-drained  parts  of  the  plain  and  to 
pasture  their  flocks  in  the  marshier  portions.  Indeed 
the  Kopaic  Valley  is  so  valuably  fertile  that  attempts 
have  been  made  in  various  ages  to  drain  it  completely, 


104  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

either  by  artificially  enlarging  and  improving  the  kata- 
bothra  or  by  cutting  a  new  outlet  through  the  moun- 
tains. The  latest  of  such  undertakings  has  been  made 
during  the  last  half  of  the  last  century,  and  was  a 
few  years  ago  brought  to  something  like  completion 
by  an  English  society,  after  French  and  Greek  enter- 
prises had  become  bankrupt  in  the  attempt. 

The  oldest  traces  of  hydraulic  engineering  in  regard 
to  Kopais  are  attributed  to  the  Minyans,  a  people  who 
in  the  second  millennium  before  Christ  flourished  here. 
They  cleared  out  the  katabothra  and  built  levees  of 
earth  and  stone  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers  so  as  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  the  water  over  the  plain.  Possi- 
bly they  also  undertook  to  tunnel  a  large  and 
straighter  opening  from  the  lake  to  the  sea,  thus 
insuring  complete  drainage  independently  of  the 
capricious  katabothra.  At  least  in  a  saddle  of  the 
mountain  ridge  which  lies  between  the  lake  and  the 
sea,  a  tunnel  which  was  to  have  been  two  miles  in 
length  was  begun  in  ancient  times,  and  was  finished 
to  the  length  of  half  a  mile.  If  this  undertaking  was 
the  work  of  the  Minyans,  its  interruption  and  aban- 
donment can  possibly  be  accounted  for  by  the  long 
wars  against  Thebes  which  finally  brought  about  the 
subjection  and  humiliation  of  the  famous  Minyans. 
The  draining  of  the  lake  was  one  of  the  achievements 
contemplated  by  Alexander  the  Great;  and  he  ap- 
pointed the  engineer  Krates  to  study  the  problem  and 
begin  the  work.  But  Krates'  plans  were  also  never 
completed. 

The  immense  labor  and  skill  which  the  Minyans 
expended  upon  this  drainage  system  became  part  of 


IN  BGEOTIA  105 

the  traditional  lore  of  antiquity,  and  were  used  as  a 
patent  and  lasting  indication  of  the  former  wealth  of 
this  panarchaic  people.  That  their  knowledge  of 
engineering  and  hydraulics  was  not  only  remarkable 
in  their  remote  age  but  would  be  noteworthy  even  in 
ours,  receives  easy  proof  from  the  fact  that  the  Euro- 
pean engineers,  who  in  our  own  day  replanned  the 
draining  of  the  lake,  were  guided  in  many  important 
details  by  the  yet  existing  traces  of  the  works  of  the 
old  Minyans. 

The  chief  city  of  the  Minyans  was  Orchomenos, 
which  Homer  names  along  with  Egyptian  Thebes  as 
being  exceedingly  opulent.  But  in  historic  times  it 
was  noted  only  as  being  a  determined  and  irreconcil- 
able enemy  of  its  more  powerful  rival,  Thebes,  the 
mistress  of  the  southern  plain.  Today  the  traveler 
can  locate  only  two  mementos  of  its  former  life  and 
glory:  the  Akidalian  fountain  where,  in  classic  times, 
there  was  a  shady  shrine  sacred  to  the  Three  Graces, 
and  the  colossal  domed  tomb  of  some  prehistoric  ruling 
family  of  Orchomenos,  now  roofless  and  desecrated. 
This  structure  is  of  the  "Mykenaean"  style  of  architec- 
ture, and  by  tradition  which,  though  based  on  a  mis- 
take, yet  well  re-echoes  the  stories  concerning  the 
magnificent  wealth  of  the  ancient  Orchomenians,  has 
by  later  Greeks  of  classic  times  been  called  the 
"treasure-house  of  the  Minyans."  Such  is  the  name 
under  which  Pavsanias  describes  the  tomb,  who  saw 
it  in  the  second  century  of  our  era.  The  powerful  city 
had  long  before  his  time  disappeared.  At  present  two 
small  villages  occupy  a  portion  of  the  site.  And  the 
place  once  adorned  by  the  sanctuary  of  the  Graces  is 


io6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

now  occupied  by  the  falling  walls  of  a  Basilian  mon- 
astery built  in  the  year  872,  whose  ever-willing  hospi- 
tality often  won  the  gratitude  of  many  a  tourist,  and 
which,  having  been  rendered  uninhabitable  by  the 
earthquakes  of  1894,  is  never  again  to  be  restored  and 
in  its  turn  is  now  about  to  be  succeeded  by  something 
modern,  possibly  by  an  agricultural  school.  Thus 
even  in  dreamy  Greece  the  prosy  pursuits  of  practical 
life  are  mercilessly  supplanting  the  poetry  and  religion 
of  Hellenic  and  Byzantine  idealism. 

Although  the  Minyans  open  Boeotian  history,  they 
are  not  indisputably  the  first  and  earliest  inhabitants 
of  this  Kopaic  country.  In  ages  which  may  have 
been  earlier  than  the  glorious  days  of  Orchomenos, 
there  existed  a  large  and  strong  fortified  city  in  the 
eastern  part  of  the  plain,  a  city  so  old  and  long  ago  so 
forgotten  that  not  even  a  conjecture  can  be  made  as 
.to  what  may  have  been  its  ancient  name.  Neverthe- 
less, it  may  not  be  older  than  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Minyan  period.  When  it  was  built  and  when  it  flour- 
ished, the  katobothra  were  not  sufficient  to  carry  off 
the  water  from  this  part  of  the  plain,  and  accordingly, 
the  town  stood  in  a  large  lake.  This  city  communi- 
cated with  the  land  round  about  the  lake  not  only  by 
boats  but  also  by  means  of  raised  roads  built  through 
the  water.  Remains  of  at  least  one  such  chaussee 
were  discovered  by  the  modern  draining  company, 
when  this  part  of  the  plain  was  again  laid  bare.  The 
chaussee  which  joined  the  island  city  with  the  north- 
ern shore  where  now  stands  the  village  of  Topolia 
was  about  a  mile  in  length.  And  this  was  the  nearest 
passway  from  the  island  to  the  shore  of  the  ancient 


IN  BCEOTIA  107 

lake.  The  ruins  of  the  prehistoric  town  still  show 
the  lower  courses  of  the  city  wall  and  the  foundations 
of  various  buildings.  The  island  is  visible  as  a  promi- 
nent object  from  all  parts  of  Kopais.  The  circum- 
ference of  the  city  was  about  two  miles.  The  ruins 
are  now  most  commonly  known  by  the  Albanian  name 
of  "Goulas"  which  simply  means  the  "castle." 

In  those  ancient  days  every  populous  city  in 
Greece  and  in  Greek  lands  had  a  tendency  to  become 
an  entirely  independent  state.  In  fact  the  names  "city" 
and  "state"  were  for  the  most  part  interchangeable 
terms.  Each  country  possessed  as  many  inde- 
pendent states  as  there  were  well-inhabited  and  flour- 
ishing cities  in  it.  Since  there  were  two  such  cities 
here  in  Bceotia  at  the  dawn  of  Greek  history,  it  fol- 
lows that  at  least  two  independent  states  should  have 
existed.  Thus  the  city  of  Orchomenos  constituted 
the  state  which  had  possession  in  the  north  valley,  and 
the  Kadmeian  Thebes  owned  the  southern  plain.  But 
since  the  geographical  unity  of  the  country  did  not 
favor  this  division  of  territory,  there  was  from 
remote  times  a  continual  war  between  these  neighbor- 
ing city-states,  each  one  being  desirous  not  only  to 
subject  and  weaken  the  rival  power  but  even  to  destroy 
it  utterly.  This  injurious  rivalry  caused  incalculable 
damage  to  both  contestants.  Both  of  these  cities  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  historic  period,  not  willing  to  be 
strong  by  assisting  each  other,  succumbed  to  a  third 
power,  to  a  horde  of  invaders  from  the  north,  who 
came  down  from  Arne,  of  Thessaly,  and  overran  all 
the  fertile  country,  giving  to  it  the  name  of  Boeotia; 
for  these  invaders  were  the  Boeotians  of  history. 


io8  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

With  this  invasion  and  with  the  transferring  of 
ownership  to  the  victorious  newcomers,  Thebes  and 
Orchomenos  did  not  cease  to  be  aggressively  jealous 
of  each  other.  But  Orchomenos  gradually  declined 
before  her  rival;  and  finally  Thebes  became  indis- 
putably the  leading  city  of  the  whole  land.  A  kind 
of  confederacy  was  formed  in  which,  under  the  hegem- 
ony of  Thebes,  each  one  of  the  sixteen  or  more 
cities  of  Boeotia  enjoyed  a  restricted  independence. 
This  arrangement  was  never  satisfactory  to  the  sub- 
ordinate cities,  especially  to  Orchomenos  and  to  the 
towns  which  lay  along  the  southern  mountain  groups 
of  Kithseron  and  Helikon.  Accordingly  a  continual 
strife  went  on. 

In  many  respects  the  mountainous  borderlands  of 
Boeotia  are  more  interesting  than  the  fertile  plains 
of  the  interior.  In  these  high  regions  there  was 
quite  a  number  of  towns.  They  lay  in  a  wide  circle 
around  Thebes  which  occupies  the  center.  This  ele- 
vated rim  which  enframes  the  midlands  is  in  some 
places  merely  colossal  piles  of  wildly  bare  limestone, 
and  in  other  places  sloping  steeps  covered  with  pines 
and  laurels  and  other  mountain  vegetation.  Number- 
less nestling  springs  and  soft  tumbling  rivulets  water 
the  soil  and  temper  the  heat  of  the  summer  air.  The 
inhabitants  of  these  border  towns,  having  the  moun- 
tains just  above  them  and  the  loamy  plains  just  below, 
are,  and  always  have  been,  partly  shepherds  and  partly 
farmers.  Their  vines  and  wheat-fields  covered  the 
valleys,  and  their  flocks  of  goats  and  sheep  browsed 
among  the  mountain  shrubs.  The  copses  and  dales 
in  these  high  regions  were  all  peopled  by  the  mystic 


IN  BCEOTIA  109 

superstition  of  the  imaginative  peasants  and  shepherds 
with  all  kinds  of  agreeable  and  disagreeable  super- 
natural beings.  Near  the  top  of  Ptoan  Hill,  at  a 
point  from  which  a  good  part  of  all  Bceotia  may  be 
seen,  Apollon  had  a  favorite  sanctuary,  where  he 
distributed  his  wise  sayings  to  all  who  went  there  to 
consult  his  oracular  agents.  The  strange  and  un- 
Greekly  hero  Trophonios  had  his  subterranean  shrine 
near  the  dewy  town  of  Lebadeia,  and  those  who 
wished  to  know  their  fortunes  had  only  to  consult 
him.  But  this  was  not  a  light  affair;  for  those  who 
descended  into  his  awful  cave  and  witnessed  its 
horrors  and  were  subjected  to  its  harrowing  ritual, 
could  not  laugh  for  a  long  time  afterward.  Indeed 
Athenseos  tells  of  a  man  who  when  pushed  up  from 
his  visit  to  the  cave  had  entirely  lost  the  power  of 
laughter.  Years  later  he  happened  to  regain  this 
blessed  faculty  by  the  sudden  hilarious  effect  produced 
on  him  by  a  ridiculously  clumsy  specimen  of  sculp- 
ture representing  the  goddess  Leto,  which  he  saw  at 
Delos. 

But  of  all  the  sacred  precincts  in  the  highland 
nooks,  the  most  beautiful  one,  and  the  one  most 
revered  by  subsequent  history  and  poetry,  is  the  dale 
which  was  sacred  to  the  Nine  Muses,  the  heavenly 
patronesses  of  the  fine  arts.  Like  all  the  other 
denizens  of  these  Breotian  shrines,  the  Muses  were  not 
autocthons,  but  immigrants.  They  came  down  into 
this  fair  land  from  the  north;  their  last  station 
in  that  colder  country  being  Pieria  at  the  foot  of 
Olympos.  Their  new  sanctuary  at  the  foot  of  Heli- 
kon  was  not  a  temple  but  a  green  and  shady  grove 


HO  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

lying  on  both  banks  of  a  mountain  brook.  On  three 
sides  of  the  grove  rise  the  green  tree-covered  slopes  of 
Helikon.  To  the  north  of  the  entrance  into  this 
semicircle  stands  out  the  high  hill  on  which  was  the 
city  of  Askra  where  the  shepherd-poet  Hesiod  lived; 
and  farther  away  to  the  east  was  the  town  of  Thespise 
which  possessed  Phryne's  unique  gift,  the  statue  of 
Eros  cut  from  a  block  of  Pentelic  marble  by  the 
inimitable  chisel  of  Praxiteles,  a  masterpiece  which 
one  Roman  emperor  confiscated  and  transported  to 
his  palace  in  Rome,  and  which  a  second  emperor  in  a 
fit  of  atonement  restored  to  the  Thespians,  and  which 
a  third  emperor  again  carried  off  to  be  lost  forever 
in  Italy. 

Where  the  center  of  the  grove  was,  there  now 
stands  an  antique  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  Indeed 
there  are,  strange  to  say,  quite  a  number  of  churches 
in  the  grove  today,  some  five  or  six,  and  a  deserted 
monastery  of  St.  Nicholas.  When  the  Boeotians 
became  Christians  they  did  not  cease  to  love  this 
beautiful  place,  but  merely  supplanted  the  forgotten 
Muses  by  new  and  heavenlier  patrons. 

So  far  as  nature  goes,  this  valley  looks  today  very 
much  as  it  did  when  centuries  before  our  era  Hesiod, 
while  tending  his  flocks,  learned  to  sing  wise  songs  to 
the  peasants  of  his  town,  and  to  the  whole  world  for- 
ever. The  Boeotian  ploughman  still  punches  his  oxen 
with  the  same  rude  goad  as  his  prehistoric  ancestors 
used,  and  cultivates  his  field  with  the  same  wooden 
plough  as  Persevs,  the  lazy  and  contentious  brother 
of  Hesiod,  disliked  to  tread  after.  Shepherds  still  as 
ignorant,  as  cunning,  and  as  picturesque  as  were  the 


IN  BCEOTIA  ill 

companions  of  Hesiod  browse  their  goats  around  the 
spring  of  Hippokrene.  The  wide  view  over  the  grove 
from  the  lonely  tower  on  Askra  hill  is  just  as  grand 
as  it  was  when  Hesiod  lived  on  that  windy  summit. 
But  if  nature  is  the  same,  the  works  of  man  which 
once  beautified  and  ensouled  nature  here  are  gone. 
If  it  be  true  that  nature  pleases  or  appalls  chiefly  when 
associated  with  analogous  deeds  of  man,  then  the 
grove  of  the  Muses  adequately  inspires  the  wanderer 
only  when  he  recalls  the  high  works  of  man  which 
once  adorned  and  enchanted  this  place.  But  all  these 
inspiring  embodiments  of  the  ideal  have  disappeared. 
How  exceptionally  beautified  by  the  artistic  hand  of 
man  this  remote  corner  of  Hellas  must  have  been,  is 
evident  merely  from  the  long  list  of  statues  of  muses 
and  gods  and  heroes  and  noble  men  which  incomplete 
records  tell  us  of  having  been  here.  But  although 
these  great  works  are  lost  forever,  or  at  least  buried 
in  the  soil  of  the  dale,  yet  it  is  not  nature  alone  that 
influences  the  lone  worshiper  here.  The  past  resouls 
itself.  Myron's  Dionysos  again  seems  to  be  standing 
under  the  vines,  and  the  statues  of  the  Muses  which 
Constantine  carried  away  as  an  ornament  for  his  new 
city  on  the  hills  of  Byzantion  are  back  again,  each  one 
in  the  graceful  attitude  of  the  copies  that  adorn  the 
museums  of  Europe.  When  the  spellbound  wanderer 
picks  his  steps  through  these  groves  and  climbs 
through  the  myrtle  bushes  to  the  cool  well  of  Hippo- 
krene, or  sits  near  the  monastery  of  St.  Nicholas 
under  the  trees  that  cover  the  bubbling  waters  of 
Aganippe,  his  soul  is  by  no  means  restricted  to  what 
he  sees  of  the  beautiful  nature  which  smiles  out  from 


112  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

eternity  around  him.  The  witchery  of  the  place  con- 
verts him  into  a  communicant  with  all  its  nobility 
of  art  and  song  and  dream.  He  contemplates 
ideals  which  are  beyond  the  reach  of  others'  eyes  and 
ears. 

But  in  the  plain  also  the  Boeotian  countrywas  rich 
in  noted  shrines.  And  these,  like  those  of  the  hill 
country,  were  of  foreign  origin.  The  city  of  Thebes, 
the  central  point  of  this  level  district,  has  always  been 
in  the  old  traditions  brought  into  connection  with  the 
myths  regarding  foreign  influence  and  imported  civili- 
zation. Hither  it  was  that  Kadmos  came  bringing 
from  Phcenikia  a  Semitic  colony  and  Semitic  gods,  and 
what  was  most  important  of  all,  a  Semitic  alphabet,  by 
the  adopting  of  which  the  Greeks  finally  learned  to 
write  by  phonetic  system.  Whether  most  of  this 
oriental  influence  came  directly  from  Asia  or  rather 
from  Krete  is  now  a  question  which  present  archaeo- 
logical investigations  will  soon  answer. 

Another  remarkable  feature  about  our  knowledge  of 
the  plain  and  its  central  city  Thebes  is  that  much  of 
its  early  mythical  history  reached  the  Attic  writers  not 
through  Boeotian  channels,  not  through  pure  local 
legend,  but  rather  through  stories  that  were  made  not 
in  Bceotia  at  all  but  in  Argos.  Theban  legends  have 
furnished  a  rich  and  varied  lot  of  material  to  artistic 
literature,  but  several  of  the  stories  which  have  been 
most  preferred,  and  which  have  been  preserved  to  us  in 
the  dramas  of  the  great  tragedians  of  antiquity,  as  in 
the  Seven  against  Thebes  or  in  the  Phcenik  Maids, 
come  in  good  part  not  directly  from  Boeotian  sources 
but  from  Peloponnesian.  Bceotia  was  a  country  rich  in 


IN  BCEOTIA  113 

literary  material,  but  as  a  rule  it  was  foreigners  who 
made  best  and  most  frequent  use  of  it. 

This  inability  or  neglect  of  the  Boeotians  to  formu- 
late the  stories  of  their  own  lives  was  due  in  great  part 
to  the  fact  that  they  never  were  a  united  people  with 
sufficient  pride  in  themselves  to  care  for  their  nation- 
ality. In  addition  to  the  continual  local  wars  which 
Thebes  waged  against  the  smaller  towns,  in  her  attempt 
to  keep  them  outwardly  leagued  with  her,  there  existed 
another  cause  of  dissension.  This  was  the  social  and 
political  gulf  which  always  separated  the  aristocratic 
from  the  common  inhabitants  in  Bosotia.  The  aristo- 
crats were  noted  for  their  lack  of  patriotic  virtue.  In 
the  fifth  century,  when  Xerxes,  the  Persian,  attempted 
to  conquer  Greece,  they  turned  traitors  to  their  father- 
land, and  placed  their  cities  and  soldiers  at  the  service 
of  the  invaders.  Again  in  the  fourth  century  before 
our  era,  finding  themselves  unable  to  hold  their  power 
against  the  people,  they  again  betrayed  the  city  of 
Thebes,  and  handed  it  over  to  a  Spartan  army  and 
garrison.  Their  principal  fame  lay  in  their  lavish  use 
of  the  plentiful  products  of  these  fertile  fields.  They 
were  famous  as  luxurious  and  gluttonous  feasters.  It 
was  natural  for  such  men  to  be  also  lazy  and  arrogant. 
Even  when  they  lost  their  wealth,  they  retained  their 
other  evil  characteristics.  What  Herakleides  of  Pontos 
says  about  the  impoverished  aristocrats  of  Thespiae 
may  well  apply  to  similar  inhabitants  of  all  Boeotia, 
that  "they  had  the  reputation  of  being  poor  but  proud. 
They  looked  down  on  men  who  had  to  live  by  handi- 
craft or  by  farming;  they  would  not  allow  a  shopkeeper 
to  enter  their  place  of  assembly  for  ten  years  after  he 


114  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

had  retired  from  business,  and  most  of  them  owed 
large  sums  of  money."  They  were  also  contentious 
and  querulous. 

When  the  oligarchic  upper  class  was  so  rude  and 
uncivilized,  one  might  not  expect  to  find  many  virtues 
in  the  class  just  below,  the  class  of  inhabitants  which 
stood  between  the  aristocrats  and  the  slaves.  But  yet 
this  middle  class  once  rose  up  under  the  leadership  of 
a  dozen  patriots  from  aristocratic  families  and,  by 
matchless  military  successes,  gave  to  Thebes  and 
Boeotia  a  short  but  wonderful  period  of  glory  as  a 
state.  As  a  sociological  phenomenon  it  may  be  noted 
that  it  was  not  the  plebeians  unled  and  unaided  who 
created  this  period  of  glory.  It  was  brought  about  by 
the  pre-eminent  abilities  of  a  few  leaders  who  were 
themselves  of  aristocratic  blood  and  training,  but  who 
by  their  virtues  and  patriotism  won  the  sympathy  and 
support  of  the  brave  and  intelligent  plebeians.  This  is 
the  old  lesson  of  civilization  which  forever  will  be  re- 
peated. The  leading  man  in  this  great  uplifting  of 
Boeotia  was  Epameinondas.  He  it  was  who  at  Levktra 
and  Mantineia  proved  that  the  farmers  of  Bceotia,  led 
by  their  invincible  phalanx,  the  "Sacred  Band,"  had 
become  the  first  military  power  in  all  Greece.  The  in- 
vincible ability  of  one  great  man  is  shown  in  Epamei- 
nondas. Perhaps  the  noblest  deeds  of  Greek  history 
happened  under  his  guidance.  But  after  he  fell  on  the 
victorious  battlefield  of  Mantineia,  no  successor  existed 
able  to  guide  the  Boeotians  to  other  victories  or  even 
to  hold  the  honors  which  they  had  already  won.  Their 
glory  as  a  state  began  with  the  hour  when  on  a  dark 
and  stormy  night  a  few  patriots  of  spirit  akin  to  that 


IN  BCEOTIA  115 

of  Epameinondas  took  down  the  brass  trumpets  that 
had  been  prepared  for  the  heralds  of  the  festival  of 
Herakles,  the  Theban  mythic  hero,  and  with  them 
blared  out  freedom  for  Thebes  and  deliverance  from 
the  Spartan  garrison  and  the  oligarchic  oppressors; 
and  the  glorious  period  ended  at  the  hour  at  which, 
when  he  learned  that  his  soldiers  had  won  at  Mantineia, 
he  pulled  the  painful  spear-head  from  his  wound  and 
died  on  the  battlefield.  It  is  sad  to  think  that  of 
Epameinondas  we  have  no  full  account.  Xenophon, 
who  wrote  for  us  the  best  description  of  the  victory  of 
Levktra,  just  outside  the  grove  of  the  Muses,  was  so 
prejudiced  against  the  Theban  hero  that  he  described 
the  conflict  in  detail  without  mentioning  or  referring 
to  the  man  who,  by  introducing  new  field  tactics,  and 
inspiring  his  men  with  his  own  personal  courage,  won 
the  battle  which  forever  destroyed  the  Spartan  su- 
premacy in  Greece.  It  is  a  strange  fate  that  among 
the  many  biographies  which  the  good-souled  Plutarch 
wrote,  the  life  of  Epameinondas  should  be  one  of  the 
few  that  have  been  lost.  This  life  would  have  been 
the  more  interesting  because  Plutarch  was  himself  a 
Boeotian.  And  since  Plutarch  was  a  native  of  the 
country  now  under  discussion,  while  deploring  the  loss 
of  his  life  of  Epameinondas,  it  is  not  out  of  place  to 
add  a  word  of  praise  in  favor  of  this  gentle  and  world- 
known  biographer.  And  the  word  of  praise  which 
will  be  added  is  that  of  General  Gordon,  who,  during 
the  siege  of  Khartoum,  wrote  down  in  his  diary  these 
lines:  "Certainly,  I  would  make  Plutarch's  Lives  a 
handbook  for  our  young  officers ;  it  is  worth  any  num- 
ber of  'arts  of  war'  or  'minor  tactics.'  " 


Ii6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Excepting  Thessaly,  there  is  no  other  plain  of 
Greece  which  can  compare  with  Bceotia  as  having  so 
often  been  the  scene  of  portentous  battles.  It  has  been 
called  "Areos  orchestra,"  or  "the  war-god's  dancing- 
ground."  Besides  the  numerous  battles  of  Greeks 
against  Greeks  it  was  here  that  the  Persian  invaders 
were  finally  defeated  near  Plataea,  and  Grecian  liberty 
was  permanently  assured.  And  again,  when  the  centers 
of  Hellenic  greatness  were  about  to  be  shifted  from 
Greece  proper  to  Egypt  and  Asia,  it  was  in  this  same 
land  of  Bceotia,  on  the  field  of  Chaeroneia,  that  Greek 
liberty  was  forever  lost.  For  here  it  was  that  Philip, 
who  had  been  educated  in  Thebes,  assisted  by  his  son 
Alexander,  who  on  this  battlefield  first  proved  his 
wonderful  strategic  skill,  completely  overwhelmed  the 
last  defenders  of  old  Hellenic  freedom.  And  it  is 
worthy  to  note  that  along  with  the  Athenians  who  could 
not  be  absent  from  such  a  noble  battle,  the  bravest 
defenders  of  disappearing  independence  were  the  The- 
ban  soldiers  of  the  Sacred  Band,  descendants  of  those 
who  had  in  ages  gone  by  given  earth  and  water  to  the 
Persian  envoys  as  tokens  of  traitorous  submission  and 
slavish  alliance.  Epameinondas'  spirit  had,  after  all, 
survived  his  death.  The  Athenians  brought  their  dead 
back  to  Athens,  but  the  Thebans  buried  their  fallen 
soldiers  on  the  field.  Over  the  common  grave  they 
placed  a  colossal  lion  of  marble.  But  they  wrote  no 
inscription.  The  event  was  too  irreparably  sad.  The 
lion  is  still  there. 

On  account  of  the  boorishness  of  the  uneducated 
among  the  Boeotians  and  the  sensuality  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  aristocratic  classes,  it  might  be  wrongly 


IN  BCEOTIA  117 

concluded  that  letters  and  learning  and  culture  were 
entirely  foreign  to  Bceotia.  But  such  a  condemning 
judgment  would  be  exceedingly  wrong.  Numerous 
are  the  names  of  scholars  and  philosophers  and  poets 
who  were  Boeotians.  For  the  rest,  it  would  be  very- 
strange  that  a  country  which  possessed  the  most  noted 
shrine  of  the  Muses,  and  where  the  Graces  were 
especially  honored,  as  at  Orchomenos,  by  all  Boeotians, 
and  where  Apollon  was  at  home  on  so  many  hilltops, 
and  where  Dionysos,  the  patron  of  the  drama,  was  re- 
puted to  have  been  born,  should  be  entirely  devoid  of 
intellectual  and  literary  life.  One  can  indeed  admit  the 
worst,  and  say  that  in  comparison  with  her  great  neigh- 
bor, Attika,  Boeotia  did  not  revel  in  the  higher  pursuits. 
But  yet,  as  is  clear,  she  did  not  entirely  neglect  them. 

There  exist  two  noted  poems  which  surely  were 
written  in  Boeotia,  and  probably  by  Hesiod.  Of  these, 
one  is  the  "Theogony,"  which  was  for  the  Greeks  the 
first  systematic  molding  of  the  various  myths  concern- 
ing their  gods  into  one  great  and  not  illogical  system. 
This  Boeotian  poet  not  only  formulated  herein  a  theol- 
ogy and  cosmogony  for  the  Greeks,  but  also  put  into 
intellectual  shape  the  stories  which  afterward  were  so 
useful  to  the  poets  of  the  highest  Greek  period.  The 
second  poem,  known  as  "Works  and  Days,"  is  a  kind 
of  bucolic  song  in  which  Hesiod  gives  all  kinds  of 
useful  advice  to  his  brother  Persevs.  It  is  purely  the 
product  of  an  agricultural  and  pastoral  country,  while 
the  "Theogony"  properly  owes  its  birth  to  a  country 
teeming,  like  Boeotia,  with  sanctuaries  and  haunts  of  all 
the  gods,  foreign  and  domestic,  that  entered  into  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  Greeks.  Both  poems  are  proper 


Il8  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

outcomes  of  the  intellect  of  the  shepherd  boy  who 
learned  to  sing  his  songs  while  pasturing  his  sheep  and 
lolling  in  the  shade  round  the  shrines  of  Helikon.  His 
poems  are  full  of  all  kinds  of  proverbs  and  adages,  a 
characteristic  of  the  thoughts  of  men  who  lead  such 
life. 

To  those  who  do  not  well  know  the  history  of  the 
expression  of  thought,  the  poems  of  Hesiod  are  an 
insoluble  mystery.  He  made  his  two  great  songs  chiefly 
for  his  fellow-shepherds  and  peasants,  but  never- 
theless he  did  not  use  their  dialect.  No  Boeotian  could 
easily  understand  the  language  of  Hesiod's  poems,  and 
consequently  no  Boeotian  could  speak  it,  without  having 
artificially  learned  to  do  so.  The  new  science  of 
epigraphy  has  taught  us  sufficient  of  the  Boeotian 
dialect  to  inform  us  how  different  it  was  from  the 
literary  language  of  Hesiod.  Perhaps  the  man  who 
writes  an  eternal  poem  never  is  inclined  to  use  the 
language  which  the  swineherd  uses  to  his  pigs.  An 
ideal  language  is  sought  after,  and  each  poet  gets  it 
from  a  different  source,  perhaps.  Hesiod,  instead  of 
taking  the  language  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  took 
the  artificial  dialect  which  had  been  created  by  the 
Homeric  rhapsodists;  and  in  this  he  composed.  The 
Boeotian  shepherd-poet  gives  a  great  lesson  in  aesthet- 
ics, which  his  countrymen  of  today  sadly  need  to  learn. 
Hesiod  was  perhaps  inferior  to  other  poets  of  Bosotia, 
whose  works  have  been  lost.  The  Boeotians  themselves 
admired  much  more  strongly  the  songs  of  the  sweet 
Korinna.  Korinna  wrote  in  dialect,  and  every  boor 
of  Bceotia  could  understand  every  word  she  sang.  But 
the  after-world  had  not  time  to  learn  Boeotian  dialect, 


IN  BCEOTIA  119 

and  while  keeping  Korinna's  name  has  not  kept  her 
songs.  They  have  all  perished.  Hesiod  became  one  of 
Virgil's  models,  who  thought  it  proper  to  repeat  in 
Latin  tongue  for  Latin  ear  the  spirit  of  the  songs  of 
Askra;  "ascraeumque  cano  romana  per  oppida  carmen." 
It  is  pardonable  to  devote  so  much  space  to  Hesiod, 
because  he  and  his  works  are  of  the  very  essence  of 
Bceotia. 

In  contrast  with  this  man  who  sang  primarily  for 
the  shepherds  and  peasants,  stands  Pindar  the  Theban, 
who  rolled  forth  his  mighty  lyrics  in  praise  of  the  rich 
and  noble  families  in  his  own  Bceotia  and  in  other  parts 
of  Greece.  How  great  was  Pindar's  fame  from  the 
very  first  is  clear  from  the  stories  they  told  in  olden 
days  of  how  when  a  boy  he  once  fell  asleep  in  the  grass, 
and  the  bees,  attracted  by  the  sweetness  of  his  mouth, 
filled  it  with  their  honey;  and  a  graceful  epigram  tells 
of  how  Pan,  the  jolly  god  of  rustic  song  and  pastoral 
flute,  was  captivated  by  Pindar's  lofty  strains,  and 
neglecting  his  own  livelier  tunes  used  to  rove  through 
glens  and  mountains  chanting  Pindar's  poems.  Pindar, 
like  Hesiod,  sang  in  a  language  not  Boeotian.  But  in 
all  respects  he  was  a  man  wider  and  greater  than  his 
provincial  country.  When  Alexander  came  into  Thebes, 
and,  to  punish  the  patriots  who  had  tried  to  hold  their 
liberty  against  him,  burnt  the  city,  even  he,  the  irre- 
sistible conqueror,  had  the  inspiration  to  save  from  the 
flames  the  house  where  Pindar  had  once  lived. 

It  is  a  pity  that  Korinna's  works  have  been  lost.  A 
few  of  her  verses  have  survived  to  us,  but  they  have 
been  much  altered  by  copyists,  who  could  not  appreciate 
the  Boeotian  dialect,  and  tried  to  make  the  lines  intel- 


120  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

ligible  to  ordinary  readers.  She  must  have  been  a 
highly  gifted  poetess,  for  at  least  once  she  won  a  prize 
in  a  contest  with  Pindar.  Korinna  was  not  the  only 
literary  woman  of  this  land.  Another  poetess,  almost 
her  rival  in  fame,  was  Myrtis  of  Anthedon.  The  Boeo- 
tians were  rather  of  the  JEolic  division  of  the  Greek 
race.  And  it  is  remarkable  that  this  JEolic  branch  was 
most  favored  by  having  women  of  culture.  Sappho 
was,  like  Korinna  and  Myrtis,  an  ^Eolian,  although  not 
a  Boeotian.  Woman  seems  to  have  been  more  the  equal 
of  man  among  these  ^Eolians.  The  Boeotians  respected 
woman.  It  is  agreeable  to  know  that  the  fault- 
finding traveler  some  of  whose  writings  are  preserved 
under  the  name  of  Diksearch,  although  he  in  many 
ways  reviles  the  inhabitants  of  Boeotia,  yet  speaks  only 
praises  for  the  Boeotian  women,  and  especially  for  those 
of  Thebes.  Hesiod  also  shows  that  he  felt  high  regard 
for  woman  in  general,  but  from  his  poems  one  might 
easily  suspect  that  he  made  partial  exception  in  regard 
to  his  own  consort,  who  seems  not  to  have  been  a 
delightful  choice.  Likewise  in  Theban  myth,  woman 
plays  an  important  role.  And  these  old  stories  have 
furnished  to  ancient  drama  one  of  the  noblest  char- 
acters of  all  literature,  the  faithful  daughter  and  faith- 
ful sister,  Antigone. 

After  the  battle  of  Chseroneia,  the  fate  of  Boeotia 
was  that  of  a  conquered  land.  The  leading  towns  lost 
their  importance.  Thebes  indeed  was  rebuilt,  but  never 
returned  to  its  former  significance.  In  the  first  century 
of  our  era,  when  Dion  Chrysostom  saw  it,  Thebes  was 
simply  a  village.  The  incomprehensible  decay  which 
began  to  eat  into  the  old  Hellenic  centers  of  life  spread 


IN  BCEOTIA  121 

its  germs  over  the  fair  lands  of  Bceotia.  Like  an  act 
of  clownish,  but  bitter  buffoonery,  a  copy  of  Nero's 
histrionic  speech  proclaiming  liberty  to  all  Greece  was 
set  up  at  the  shrine  of  Ptoan  Apollon  by  a  man  who 
bore  the  sacred  name  of  Epameinondas. 

The  day  had  come  for  the  old  gods  to  pass  away. 
The  shrines  gradually  ceased  to  satisfy  the  wants  of 
even  these  simple  Boeotians.  The  mantic  spirits  on 
Ptoan  Hill  and  by  Herkyn's  stream,  the  Tilphossian 
nymph,  the  naiads  around  the  Graces'  spring,  the  dew- 
fresh  Muses,  the  whole  world  of  former  thought  and 
imagination  and  religion  passed  into  silence,  into  the 
bosom  of  eternity. 

Then  came  new  men  from  strange  climes.  Goth 
and  Slav  and  European  took  turn  in  newly  ravishing 
this  land,  which  persistently  after  each  calamitous  in- 
road of  destroyers  would  again  bloom  out  into  a  new 
life.  In  the  year  1146,  Thebes  was  a  happy  and  rich 
town.  Its  silk  industries  were  prized  the  world  over. 
But  it  is  dangerous  to  be  wealthy  and  weak.  The 
adventurous  soldiers  of  Roger  the  Norman,  king  of 
Sicily,  sailed  into  the  Korinthiac  gulf  and  disembarked 
into  Bceotia.  They  plundered  and  pillaged  with  in- 
describable thoroughness.  Each  inhabitant  of  the  city 
of  Thebes,  after  being  deprived  of  every  object  in 
sight,  had  to  take  an  oath  on  the  Holy  Scriptures  that 
he  had  concealed  nothing  of  value.  The  Sicilians 
carried  off  a  sufficient  number  of  Thebans  as  slaves 
to  establish  the  manufacture  of  silk  in  Sicily.  And 
thus  the  art  spread  to  Europe.  Another  circumstance 
that  witnesses  to  the  general  prosperity  of  Boeotia  in 
the  Byzantine  ages  is  the  fact  that  it  was  thickly  popu- 


122  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

lated.  And  this  fact  is  testified  to  by  the  many  churches 
that  exist  in  ruins  all  throughout  the  country.  These 
date  from  different  centuries,  beginning  with  the  ninth. 
All  the  places  in  Bceotia  marked  by  ancient  Christian 
shrines  would  make  a  long  list,  if  enumerated.  And 
numerous  churches  are  not  built  in  waste  and  aban- 
doned lands.  Accordingly  Byzantine  Boeotia  was  a 
populated  and  comparatively  prosperous  country. 

When,  by  the  fortunes  of  the  Fourth  Crusade,  the 
Byzantine  empire  became  a  Latin  possession,  Bceotia 
fell  under  the  dominion  of  Othon  de  la  Roche.  The 
seat  of  government  was  at  Thebes.  The  glory  of  the 
court  life  in  the  Prankish  palaces  on  the  Kadmeia  of 
Thebes  almost  surpasses  belief.  Boccaccio  in  his 
Decamerone  has  left  us  a  few  lines  of  description  of 
this  Theban  splendor,  in  the  part  where  he  narrates 
the  history  of  the  Princess  Alathiel.  It  is  recorded  that 
the  language  spoken  in  these  halls  rivaled  in  purity  the 
best  specimens  of  French  in  its  native  soil  of  France. 
Songs  which  troubadours  sang  in  Thebes  are  still 
preserved. 

But  this  chivalrous  Frankish  life  had  its  vicissitudes 
and  its  end.  The  Westerners  could  not  protect  their 
new  countries  from  each  other's  greed.  Here  in 
Boeotia,  the  French  rule  was  destroyed  by  an  army  of 
Spanish  Catalonians,  who  plundered  the  country  and 
burned  its  castles,  and  then  tried  to  restore  it  to  pros- 
perity and  to  rule  over  it.  The  castle  of  St.  Omer  in 
Thebes  was  famous  in  history  and  song  for  the  won- 
derful paintings  on  its  walls,  representing  the  exploits 
of  the  Crusaders  in  Palestine.  But  the  Catalonians 
burned  this  palace  also,  and  now  nothing  of  it  remains 


IN  BCEOTIA  123 

except  a  solitary  tower  standing  near  the  edge  of  the 
modern  village. 

In  1311,  the  Catalonians  came  into  Thebes,  and 
from  that  year  does  its  permanent  and  final  insignifi- 
cance date.  It  never  prospered  again.  Perhaps  the 
last  great  scene  on  the  site  of  this  old  and  sacred  town 
took  place  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1376,  when,  by  the 
arrangement  of  Pope  Gregory  XI,  there  gathered  here 
the  flower  of  nobility  and  chivalry  and  ecclesiastical 
dignity  from  all  the  Latin  posessions  in  Hellenic  lands, 
together  with  the  knights  of  Rhodes,  the  emperor  of 
Constantinople,  and  princely  representatives  from  Hun- 
gary and  Venice  and  Sicily  and  Taranto  and  Kypros 
and  Genoa  to  devise  some  common  plans  of  attack 
against  the  Moslem.  But  the  synod  was  without  prac- 
tical result. 

With  the  final  departure  of  the  Latins,  and  the 
arrival  of  the  Turks,  Boeotia  became  closed  to  all 
progress  and  to  all  hopes  of  recuperation.  During  this 
period  it  has  no  history  worth  meditating  on. 

But  when  again  there  came  the  time  for  the  yet 
living  sparks  of  Hellenism  and  civilization  to  rekindle 
into  fires  of  liberty  among  these  ancient  hills,  Bceotia 
was,  in  spite  of  the  lethargy  of  ages,  ready  to  act  a 
heroic  part.  Almost  at  the  very  first  outbreak  of  the 
war  for  independence  Boeotians  were  in  the  field,  and 
fighting;  for  in  March  of  1821,  Athanasios,  the  deacon, 
a  man  of  matchless  bravery  and  patriotism,  raised  the 
banner  of  freedom  in  the  town  of  Lebadeia. 

Bceotia  is  today  one  of  the  most  prosperous  of  the 
provinces  of  Greece.  But  progress  goes  very  slowly 
when  it  starts  from  where  modern  Greek  civilization 


124  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

had  to  take  its  new  beginnings,  and  when  it  has  only 
such  aids  as  are  at  the  disposal  of  the  Greeks  of  today. 

Here  in  Bceotia  there  are  two  peoples  living  side  by 
side,  Greeks  and  Albanians.  But  they  do  not  look  upon 
each  other  as  strangers  or  rivals.  In  time  the  Albanian 
portion  will  forget  its  separate  origin. 

Such  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of  this  land  of 
Boeotia,  which,  although  so  small  and  in  a  sense  so 
insignificant,  has  had  so  large  a  part  in  history.  Thfr 
entire  province  is  not  more  than  1,119  square  miles  in 
size. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS 

The  most  inaccessible  region  of  all  Greece  is  the 
savage  mountainland  which  begins  at  the  Gulf  of  Nav- 
paktos  and  extends  through  the  middle  of  the  country 
northward  to  the  Turkish  border.  Near  the  south  end 
of  this  rugged  land  dwell  today  the  miserable  Krab- 
arits;  the  northern  end,  high  up  near  the  frontier  of 
Albania,  is  the  home  of  the  Joumerk  shepherds  and 
muleteers;  and  the  central  portion,  from  Mt.  Belouchi 
to  Mt.  Karabas,  is  the  canton  of  Agrapha,  so  famous 
in  Romanic  folklore  and  song. 

The  mountain  range  bears  different  names  in  differ- 
ent localities.  If  for  scientific  brevity  there  is  any 
advantage  in  designating  this  entire  system  of  peaks 
and  ridges  by  one  comprehensive  appellation,  the  most 
satisfactory  way  of  doing  so  would  be  to  call  it  the 
"Pindos"  Range.  This  is  the  ancient  and  modern  name 
of  the  northern  portion  of  the  system,  including  all  the 
mountains  within  the  limits  of  Agrapha.  The  reason 
for  this  multiplicity  of  names  lies  partly  in  the  fact  that 
these  untamed  mountaineers  have  since  their  first 
appearance  in  history  been  always  divided  into  a  num- 
ber of  separate  and  mutually  hostile  tribes.  They  were 
never  effectually  inspired  by  any  spirit  of  neighborly 
and  assimilative  fraternity.  No  tribe  acted  in  sympathy 
with  the  others.  They  had  nothing  in  common. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding 
plains  they  were  all  equally  barbarous  and  fierce.  They 
were  expert  spearsmen,  whose  skill  had  been  acquired 

125 


126  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

•in  hunting  the  wild  game  which  in  their  forests 
abounded,  and  in  ever  descending  in  looting  expeditions 
against  the  men  of  the  towns  in  the  plains.  Noble 
indeed  and  dangerous  must  have  been  the  swift  and 
savage  beasts  that  infested  these  wastes,  inciting  the 
mountaineers  to  develop  their  innate  fleetness  of  foot 
and  to  perfect  their  unerring  skill  of  eye  and  hand  in 
hurling  the  javelin  or  sending  the  arrow.  Xenophon  in 
his  treatise  on  Hunting  furnishes  some  information  re- 
garding the  varieties  of  animals  that  were  to  be  found 
here.  He  asserts  that  throughout  the  wild  district 
lying  between  Mt.  Pangseos  of  Makedonia  and  the 
Acheloos  River,  which  flows  just  west  of  the  Pindos 
Mountains,  not  only  were  leopards  and  panthers  and 
bears  and  lynxes  plentiful,  but  even  lions  roamed 
through  these  lonely  regions.  This  statement  of  Xeno- 
phon regarding  the  lions  is  supported  by  similar  dec- 
larations in  the  writings  of  Herodotos  and  Aristotle. 

Outside  of  hunting  and  marauding  these  ancient 
mountaineers  had  no  other  laborious  occupation.  They 
raised  herds  of  sheep  and  cattle.  Their  flocks  in  sum- 
mer could  browse  in  the  mountains,  but  in  winter  had  to 
be  driven  down  to  the  warmer  pastures  in  the  marshy 
prairies  east  and  west  of  Pindos.  Such  has  been  always 
the  practice  of  the  shepherds  here.  They  lead  a 
nomadic  life,  moving  with  their  lares  and  flocks  to 
lower  or  to  higher  altitudes  conformably  with  the  re- 
quirements of  the  season  of  the  year.  Agriculture 
never  gained  any  footing  in  the  Pindos  country. 
Throughout  this  entire  region  there  is  not  a  single  tract 
of  land  that  can  be  called  a  plain.  Along  the  rivers 
and  torrents  there  are,  however,  occasional  slender 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  127 

strips  of  arable  soil,  which  the  inhabitants  of  today 
cultivate. 

In  antiquity,  as  well  as  in  modern  times,  these  moun- 
taineers of  Pindos  and  adjacent  ranges  bore  different 
names,  according  to  the  section  of  country  which  they 
dwelt  in,  being  never  an  undivided  people.  Dolopians, 
Athamans,  Agrseans,  and  Evrytans  are  among  the 
tribes  recorded  by  the  classical  writers.  Their  isolated 
mode  of  life  kept  them  aloof  from  the  common  affairs 
of  the  other  Greeks.  They  lay  off  the  main  thorough- 
fares along  which  Hellenic  culture  marched.  They 
owned  no  share  in  the  progress  that  bloomed  in  the 
ambitious  cities  of  Minyan  or  Dorian  chivalry  and 
enterprise.  They  were  outside  the  pale  of  Hellenic  life. 
Their  crude  customs  grated  harshly  against  the  refined 
habits  of  the  other  Greeks.  Thoukydides  observes  that 
the  Evrytans  used  to  devour  meat  uncooked.  The 
language  of  these  same  Evrytans  was  almost  unintel- 
ligible to  men  from  Attika.  This  could  easily  be  sur- 
mised, even  without  Thoukydides'  express  testimony 
thereto.  But  just  in  what  respect  their  speech  differed 
from  the  other  Greek  dialects  is  not  yet  determined, 
for  inscriptions  have  not  been  found  in  sufficient  num- 
ber. And  as  the  Pindic  tribes  were  not  a  people  of 
monuments  and  records,  it  is  probable  that  our  igno- 
rance as  to  the  nature  of  the  Pindic  tongues  will  exist 
forever.  The  peculiarity  of  their  language,  the  strange- 
ness of  their  customs,  and  their  isolation  from  the  other 
Greeks  were  so  conspicuous  that  Polybios  and  Strabon 
regarded  them  as  belonging  to  some  foreign  race  of 
men  and  as  not  being  Hellenic. 

Being  outside  the  world  of  civilization,  they  natu- 


128  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

rally  possessed  no  large  cities.  They  lived  herded  to- 
gether in  little  towns  or  collections  of  huts.  Each 
town  had  its  small  fort,  on  the  top  of  some  rock,  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  protect  the  inhabitants  against  those 
of  rival  towns.  Along  and  near  the  high  banks  of  the 
Acheloos,  the  remains  of  such  fortresses  are  quite 
numerous,  showing  that  these  western  ridges  of  Pindos 
must  have  been  thickly  populated.  It  is  probable  that 
the  Acheloan  mountaineers  were  owners  also  of  the 
nearer  marsh-lands  of  northern  Akarnania.  Since  the 
entire  country  is  one  of  great  natural  strength,  fortifi- 
cations against  enemies  from  a  distance  were  not  much 
needed.  Every  mountain  peak  was  a  natural  fortress 
for  defense  against  the  rare  invader. 

Except  the  dilapidated  walls  of  the  rudely  con- 
structed but  strong  little  fortresses  of  rough-cut  stone 
that  protected  the  various  settlements,  the  only  other 
notable  remains  of  antiquity  here  are  the  numerous 
cemeteries.  These,  as  well  as  the  citadels,  prove  that 
the  mountains  were  well  inhabited,  and  also  like  the 
citadels,  indicate  the  localities  where  the  ancient  towns 
were  situated.  It  is  by  the  exploitation  of  these  ceme- 
teries chiefly  that  our  knowledge  of  the  ancient  life 
in  these  high  regions  may  possibly  be  increased.  But 
the  simple  utensils  and  objects  of  art  or  cult  found  in 
such  graves  as  have  already  been  examined  do  not 
afford  brilliant  hopes  for  the  discovery  of  many  signifi- 
cant truths  through  this  method  of  investigation.  The 
Pindic  tribes  were  certainly  of  great  antiquity.  Do- 
lopians  are  named  in  the  Homeric  songs.  The  aged 
pedagogue  Phoenix,  in  recounting  the  vicissitudes  of  his 
life  to  the  hero  Achilles,  who  had  once  been  his  pupil, 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  129 

recalls  the  time  when  he  came  as  a  fugitive  to  the 
palace  of  Achilles'  father,  and  being  received  into 
favor,  was  appointed  to  be  ruler  over  the  land  of  the 
Dolopians. 

When  the  other  nations  of  Greece  began  to  wane, 
the  Pindic  tribes  became  more  prominent.  As  civili- 
zation gradually  weakened  the  physical  condition  of 
the  other  Greeks,  the  rude  men  of  the  mountains,  whose 
strength  was  yet  primeval,  began  to  take  a  hand  in  the 
affairs  of  common  weal.  In  the  wars  occasioned  by  the 
various  invasions  which  began  at  the  commencement  of 
the  second  century  before  Christ,  these  mountaineers 
took  their  highest  place  in  ancient  history.  The  Atha- 
mans  reached  the  summit  of  their  success  and  fame 
under  their  king  Amynander,  about  200  before  Christ. 
One  of  the  last  great  military  combinations  in  old 
Greek  energy  is  known  as  the  ^Etolian  League.  The 
states  belonging  to  this  confederation  indeed  proved 
themselves  to  possess  much  warlike  vigor,  but  were 
nevertheless  of  little  glory  to  their  common  fatherland. 
They  were  among  the  first  to  further  the  plans  of  the 
Romans  for  interference  and  final  conquest  in  the  East. 
However,  some  of  the  most  interesting  pages  of  the 
last  epoch  of  ancient  history  are  occupied  with  their 
doings ;  and  therefore  they  are  not  to  be  omitted  when 
the  epoch-making  events  of  the  world  are  told  in  detail. 
In  this  ^Etolian  League  the  mountaineers  all  played  an 
important  part.  But  the  league  exhausted  the  ^Etolians 
and  their  friends,  and  the  mountaineers  relapsed  into 
their  usual  obscurity.  It  was  only  through  the  leader- 
ship of  inspiration  from  outside  that  they  had  acquired 
a  short  significance  in  ancient  history,  and  as  soon  as 


130  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

that  inspiration  failed,  they  shrank  back  into  their 
native  oblivion. 

After  the  passing  of  many  centuries,  the  denizens 
of  the  Pindos  regions  began  to  acquire  a  fresh  and 
romantic  prominence  among  the  inglorious  shepherds 
and  peasants  of  the  northern  provinces  of  mediaeval 
Greece.  Their  country  reappears  on  the  pages  of 
Hellenic  history  under  a  new  name,  and  surrounded 
with  the  halo  of  a  new  and  even  enviable  reputation. 
Some  time  during  the  late  Middle  Ages  the  term 
"agraphos,"  in  the  meaning  of  "unenrolled,"  came  fre- 
quently to  indicate  any  common  man  who  was  free 
from  the  obligation  of  paying  certain  poll  taxes  to  the 
owners  of  the  soil,  and  was  not  bound  servilely  to 
perform  a  certain  amount  of  unremunerated  manual 
labor  every  year  in  the  fields  or  houses  of  these  land- 
lords. The  "unenrolled"  inhabitant  was,  in  other 
words,  a  free  man,  while  the  "grammenoi"  or  "re- 
corded" glebes  were  slaves,  either  fully  or  partially. 
Now  in  those  days  a  portion  of  the  Pindic  territory 
began  to  be  known  under  the  name  of  "Agrapha,"  or 
"Agraphochoria,"  which  means  "the  unenrolled  town- 
ships," whose  inhabitants  were  men  unshackled  by  any 
conditions  peculiar  to  serfs  or  slaves. 

It  is  probable  that  the  mountaineers  never  were 
completely  subdued  by  the  successive  conquerors  of 
Greece,  and  that  from  antiquity  down  through  all  the 
centuries  their  aerial  fastnesses  remained  an  unassail- 
able refuge-place  for  a  stern  and  rather  lawless  kind  of 
freedom.  Certainly  the  honorable  name  of  "Agrapha" 
could  have  associated  itself  inseparably  with  this 
region  only  after  centuries  of  defiant  life  had 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  131 

caused  the  name  to  be  commonly  applied,  and  had 
proven  it  to  be  exceptionally  appropriate.  The  name 
was  not  conferred  by  any  act  of  government;  it  grew 
up  spontaneously,  and  probably  came  to  be  common 
as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century. 

It  would  be  very  interesting  to  possess  some  definite 
knowledge  about  the  fate  of  this  country  while  it  was 
under  the  government  of  the  Byzantine  empire.  We 
do  not  know  anything  in  satisfactory  detail  about  the 
relations  of  the  Agraphiots  to  the  other  inhabitants  of 
Greece.  How  and  when  they  received  Christianity  we 
do  not  know.  On  account  of  their  being  inimically  in- 
communicate  with  the  surrounding  inhabitants,  they 
must  have  retained  their  old  beliefs  until  quite  late, 
down  to  about  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  at  least. 
During  subsequent  ages  numerous  small  monasteries 
were  founded  here.  In  the  southern  part  of  this  moun- 
tain country,  some  three  or  four  hours'  walk  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  the  region  to  which  the  name  of 
Agrapha  strictly  belongs,  stands  the  revered  monastery 
of  Prousos,  which  according  to  the  local  tradition  was 
founded  during  the  reign  of  the  emperor  Theophilos. 
Since  this  emperor  died  in  842,  the  monastery  may  have 
been  founded  before  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century. 
Notwithstanding  the  lateness  of  this  date,  it  is  a  con- 
venient one  by  which  to  indicate  the  epoch  at  which 
the  conversion  of  the  forefathers  of  the  Agraphiots  to 
Christianity  was  finally  completed. 

Although  difficult  of  access  from  the  fertile  regions 
toward  the  east  and  the  west,  which  were  so  frequently 
devastated  by  invaders  and  occupied  by  foreign  colo- 
nists, the  villages  of  Agrapha  did  not  remain  entirely 


132  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

untouched  and  unaffected  by  these  inroads  and  migra- 
tions. 

It  is  true  indeed  that  the  hordes  which  were  bent 
merely  on  plunder  were  liable  to  avoid  ascending  into 
these  less  remunerative  mountain  districts.  But  from 
among  the  foreigners  who  migrated  into  Greece  with 
the  intention  of  staying,  it  is  very  probable  that  some 
went  up  into  the  mountain  country,  and  founded  settle- 
ments there.  In  the  year  995,  the  Bulgarian  king 
Samuel  marched  into  Greece  with  the  avowed  purpose 
of  establishing  colonies  for  his  Slavs.  In  the  Agraphiot 
country  the  names  of  several  towns  and  of  many  locali- 
ties are  still  Slavonic.  It  is  not  incredible  to  think  that 
these  place-names  are  relics  of  the  colonies  which  rested 
here  in  consequence  of  Samuel's  enterprising  inroad. 
There  are  also  a  few  Vlachic  names  of  places,  showing 
that  these  nomadic  shepherds  were  not  without  some 
slight  influence  in  Agrapha. 

But  notwithstanding  this  small  admixture  of  Sla- 
vonic and  other  foreign  blood,  the  Agraphiot  popu- 
lation has  remained  Hellenic.  Nevertheless  the 
Agraphiots  cannot  possibly  be  pure  descendants  from 
the  ancient  dwellers  in  these  same  mountains.  There 
was  a  continual  infiltration  of  other  Greek  blood  from 
the  people  of  the  plains.  Agrapha,  being  always  a 
country  of  refuge  for  those  whose  lives  were  at  stake, 
continually  kept  receiving  small  additions  to  its  popula- 
tion by  accepting  such  refugees. 

Under  this  more  interesting  aspect  the  land  rose  into 
greater  importance  after  Greece  was  subjected  to  the 
rule  of  the  sultans,  who  were  the  most  oppressive  of 
all  the  successive  masters  of  the  land  and  the  most  in- 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  133 

human  in  their  cruel  despotism.  Of  all  such  men  as  fled 
to  the  mountains  the  most  remarkable  were  the  class 
known  as  "klephts."  The  klepht  was  usually  a  young 
brave  who  on  account  of  some  ill  favor  of  the  magis- 
trates, or  pursued  by  the  hatred  of  some  rival,  or  in 
consequence  of  some  deed  of  blood  or  violence  found  it 
possible  to  save  his  life  in  no  other  way  than  by  flight. 
He  went  to  the  mountains  alone,  leaving  his  family  and 
relations  in  his  native  village.  The  klephts  lived  the 
lives  of  robbers.  But  since  their  energies  were  directed 
against  Turkish  rulers  and  Turkish  supporters  rather 
than  against  the  impoverished  rayahs,  they  always  en- 
joyed the  sympathy  and  received  the  support  of  their 
fellow-countrymen,  the  enslaved  natives.  It  was  even 
regarded  as  a  kind  of  honor  to  have  a  member  of  the 
family  living  as  a  klepht.  Such  a  man  would  be  ready 
at  all  times  to  take  terrible  revenge  of  vendetta  on  any- 
one who  would  injure  or  insult  or  disregard  his  rela- 
tions in  the  plain.  Thus  the  family  that  possessed  a 
klepht  could  always  count  on  his  bloody  protection  in 
the  hour  of  need.  Religion  and  honor,  as  they  under- 
stood these  ideas,  were  sacred  to  the  klephts.  Pashas, 
beys,  and  agas  were  the  most  desirable  targets  for  their 
bullets.  The  forests  and  mountains  of  Agrapha  were 
among  the  most  noted  of  the  klephtic  haunts. 

To  keep  the  country  and  especially  the  highways  and 
mountain  passes  safe  to  a  certain  degree,  the  govern- 
ment maintained  bodies  of  armed  men  called  "arma- 
tols."  Like  the  klephts  the  armatols  had  existed  long 
before  the  country  fell  under  Turkish  dominion.  Rural 
gens  d'armes  of  this  kind  used  to  be  employed  in  the 
mediaeval  Byzantine  empire,  and  in  the  Italian  and 


134  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Prankish  states  which  had  been  established  in  the  East. 
In  the  province  of  Agrapha  the  civil  government  of  the 
sultan  was  absolutely  powerless  save  in  so  far  as  it 
was  supported  at  every  turn  by  the  toupheks  and 
daggers  of  the  armatols.  The  management  of  the 
affairs  of  the  government  was  practically  in  the  hands 
of  the  armatol  chieftains.  A  charter  issued  by  Mo- 
hammed II  is  mentioned  in  history,  by  virtue  of  which 
the  armatols  of  Agrapha  were  given  municipal  inde^ 
pendence  and  held  the  exclusive  right  of  keeping  order 
in  that  canton. 

The  prowess  of  the  Agraphiot  armatols  was  directed 
chiefly  against  the  klephts  who  had  their  hiding-places 
in  the  cliffs  and  forests.  In  order  to  be  equal  to  the 
klephts  in  skill  and  cunning,  and  to  have  adequate 
knowledge  of  their  plans  and  to  pursue  them  success- 
fully, the  life  led  by  the  armatols  differed  but  little  from 
that  which  the  klephts  had  chosen  for  themselves.  In 
character  the  two  sets  of  opponents  differed  but  little 
from  each  other.  A  dissatisfied  klepht  would  go  over 
and  join  the  armatols,  and  a  dissatisfied  armatol  would 
become  a  klepht.  Both  classes  had  the  same  prominent 
virtues  and  the  same  manifold  and  conspicuous  vices. 
All  had  the  same  chief  prayer — a  fighter's  honorable 
death,  a  "good  bullet,  'kalo  molybi.' ' 

Although  these  outlaws  and  their  hunters  had  no 
clear  ideas  of  patriotism  or  fatherland,  yet  when  the 
revolution  broke  out  in  1821  many  of  the  best  soldiers 
came  indiscriminately  from  among  the  klephts  and 
the  armatols. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Agraphiots  that  even  during 
that  most  uncivilized  epoch  of  Greek  history,  the  ages 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  135 

of  Turkish  domination,  these  mountaineers  did  not 
entirely  forget  the  usefulness  of  letters.  Books  were 
to  be  found  in  the  monasteries.  A  library  of  many 
volumes  was  kept  by  the  monks  of  Tatarna.  The 
learned  Agraphiot,  Anastasios  Gordios,  made  a  cata- 
logue of  the  books  contained  in  it.  The  catalogue  was 
intended  for  the  use  of  Prince  Nikolaos  Mavrokor- 
datos.  Anastasios  Gordios  and  other  worthy  Agraphiot 
scholars  taught  grammar  and  rhetoric  and  mathematics 
to  a  few  select  pupils  in  a  school  which  was  maintained 
in  a  small  monastery  near  the  village  of  Gouba.  The 
founder  of  this  modest  institution,  and  the  first  teacher 
in  it,  was  Evgenios  ^Etolos.  The  school  was  kept  in 
successful  existence  for  the  space  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  It  was  closed  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  school  of  Gouba  was  not  the  only 
one  in  Agrapha. 

During  these  same  dark  ages  Agrapha  produced  a 
few  men  of  education  whose  writings  are  not  without 
value  of  some  kind.  The  only  one  selected  for  mention 
here  is  the  well-known  Dionysios  of  Phourna  who  com- 
posed in  modern  Greek  dialect  a  long  treatise  on  the 
art  of  hagiography.  The  book  was  intended  to  be  a 
practical  guide  to  painters  of  ikons  for  religious  use 
and  worship.  It  is  full  of  technical  information  which 
the  author  acquired  by  personal  study  and  practice  in 
the  hagiographic  ateliers  of  Mount  Athos  at  a  time 
when  Panselenos  the  most  inspired  of  all  Byzantine 
limners  was  the  directing  luminary  there.  For  the 
history  of  mediaeval  painting  Dionysios'  careful  trea- 
tise is  now  indispensable.  It  was  written  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  but  records  rules  of  art  that  had  been  in  vogue 


136  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

for  a  long  time.  For  the  Byzantine  monks  who  paint 
at  Mount  Athos,  it  is  still  the  highest  authority  on  all 
details  of  technique,  color,  composition,  and  pose. 

The  savage  independence  which  the  Agraphiots  had 
by  force  of  arms  so  long  vindicated  to  themselves 
against  all  regular  forms  of  government  began  to  lose 
its  security  and  prestige  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  through  the  mutual  jealousies  of  the 
chieftains  of  the  various  bands  of  armatols  and  the 
cunning  of  the  celebrated  Ali  Pasha  of  loanina.  And 
when  a  portion  of  the  Greeks  who  had  revolted  against 
Turkey  in  1821  were  finally  organized  into  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  the  southern  half  of  Agrapha  was 
allotted  to  the  new  kingdom  of  Greece,  while  the 
northern  part  continued  to  be  under  Turkish  sway. 
This  division  completed  the  downfall  of  the  glory  of 
Agrapha.  The  armatol  system  passed  away,  and  the 
klephts  came  to  be  considered  simply  as  outlawed  crim- 
inals. In  1881  the  northern  half  of  the  canton  was 
permitted  to  follow  the  happy  fate  of  the  southern  half, 
and  to  be  united  to  Greece.  From  that  year  exploits 
of  klephtic  adventure  in  Agrapha  are  heard  of  only  in 
stories  relating  to  the  past. 

In  all  of  Agrapha  there  are  no  wheeled  vehicles. 
There  is  not  a  single  thoroughfare  along  which  a  car- 
riage could  be  driven.  The  ordinary  roads  that  join 
village  to  village  are  merely  foot-paths  along  the  tops 
of  the  mountain  ridges  or  goat-trails  that  wind  through 
the  forests  and  rocks,  ascending  steep  heights  and 
circling  down  precipitous  declivities.  Every  village  is 
separated  from  all  others  by  at  least  one  mountain.  A 
trip  from  one  town  to  another  generally  demands  at 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  137 

least  one  steep  and  fatiguing  climb  and  one  toilsome 
descent.  The  best  and  most  passable  roads  are  those 
which  follow  the  courses  of  the  streams.  There  is  one 
well-built  but  ill-kept  bridle  path  leading  along  the 
Agraphiotic  River  from  the  town  of  Agrapha  to  the 
mediaeval  bridge  of  Manoles,  near  the  monastery  of 
Tatarna.  In  winter  time  most  of  the  mountain  roads 
are  closed  to  all  traffic  and  intercourse,  as  the  passes 
become  filled  with  snow.  The  more  remote  villages 
often  remain  without  communication  with  the  outside 
world  for  several  months. 

Foreign  travelers  that  visit  Agrapha  are  very  rare. 
The  natives  cannot  understand  why  a  stranger  should 
come  toiling  and  touring  into  their  land.  They  cannot 
readily  comprehend  the  hardihood  and  purposelessness 
of  entering  into  it  with  the  mere  intention  of  sight- 
seeing. If  they  meet  the  traveler  on  one  of  the  narrow 
paths  they  look  at  him  with  eyes  of  astonishment  and 
suspicion.  But  when  by  crafty  and  adroit  observation 
and  questioning  they  conclude  that  the  stranger  is  no 
spy  who  has  come  to  do  them  injury  and  no  secret 
agent  of  the  government  bent  on  collecting  arrears  of 
taxes  or  sent  to  impose  new  obligations,  they  are  not 
inhospitable.  They  then  may  be  prevailed  upon  to 
recite  the  traditions  regarding  the  prowess  of  their 
forefathers,  to  tell  the  stories  and  myths  connected 
with  the  various  localities,  and  to  point  out  the  sites 
made  infamous  or  glorious  by  deeds  of  blood  or 
bravery. 

A  few  times  each  year  the  Agraphiots  go  down  into 
the  plains  to  sell  the  scanty  products  of  their  homeland. 
Those  who  live  in  the  northern  parts  of  Agrapha  visit 


138  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  markets  in  the  Thessalic  towns  of  Trikkala  or 
Karditsa,  while  those  who  live  in  the  southern  part 
cross  the  outspurs  of  Mount  Tymphrestos  and  descend 
into  the  town  of  Karpenesion.  Cheese  and  butter, 
hides  and  wool  and  home-spun  flannels,  sheep  and 
goats,  are  the  most  valuable  marketable  articles  which 
they  bring  to  exchange  for  a  little  money  and  which 
they  may  barter  away  for  the  produce  of  the  cities  and 
fields  in  the  plains.  A  few  of  the  villages,  as  Rendina 
for  example,  possess  sufficient  arable  land  on  hill  sides 
and  along  the  streams  to  produce  enough  of  maize  and 
wheat  for  local  needs.  But  here  is  no  surplus  for 
exportation. 

The  mountaineers  still  adhere  to  the  old  custom  of 
holding  annual  fairs  at  which  they  are  able  to  dispose 
of  whatever  they  have  for  sale,  if  they  prefer  not  to 
go  down  to  the  distant  markets.  At  these  fairs  the 
natives  meet  the  merchants  who  come  up  from  the  sur- 
rounding towns.  The  habit  of  disposing  of  their  goods 
at  fairs  was  instituted  in  mediaeval  times  and  long 
remained  in  favor  because  it  was  not  without  serious 
risk  of  life  and  imminent  probability  of  being  robbed 
that  the  mountaineers  could  travel  along  the  lonely 
roads  to  and  from  the  far-off  markets.  The  most  pop- 
ular of  all  these  fairs  is  the  one  which  takes  place  every 
year  in  the  month  of  September  near  the  monastery  of 
Tatarna  in  a  beautiful  little  valley  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Acheloos  river.  A  level  tract  of  sand  and  grassy 
loam  stretches  along  the  side  of  the  water,  affording  a 
comfortable  and  picturesque  camping  ground  for  the 
thousands  that  come  to  the  fair.  They  bring  their 
goods  to  these  fairs  on  pack  horses  and  donkeys. 


THE  LAND  OF  THE  KLEPHTS  139 

The  Agraphiots  although  living  in  circumstances  so 
straightened  and  so  resourceless  never  succumb  to  their 
poverty.  They  are  really  a  contented  people.  No  com- 
plaints are  heard,  no  bewailing  of  their  fate.  It  is 
common  however  for  each  family  to  send  one  of  its 
brightest  young  men  abroad,  to  Constantinople  or  to 
some  other  center  of  business  and  mercantile  struggle, 
where,  using  the  savings  of  his  parents  and  brothers 
as  capital,  he  invests  in  some  kind  of  commercial  enter- 
prise and  after  ten  or  fifteen  years  returns  with  a 
goodly  sum  of  honest  gainings  which  are  then  justly 
distributed  among  the  members  of  the  family,  and  the 
betraveled  son  takes  some  neighbor's  daughter  and 
settles  down  to  married  life  in  his  native  village. 

The  Agraphiots  of  today  are  a  people  of  patience 
and  bravery  and  manly  strength.  They  are  perhaps  in 
many  ways  the  most  attractive  and  sympathetic  in- 
habitants of  northern  Greece. 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE 

"Je  cueille  les  lauriers  des  Delphes 
et  je  goute  les  delices  de  Tempe." 

Our  admiration  for  mountains  and  streams  and 
dales  is  often  occasioned  by  our  respect  for  events  that 
happened  in  these  places  and  associated  them  forever 
with  our  ideas  of  beauty  or  glory.  Accordingly,  not 
always  is  the  superbest  natural  scenery  the  best  known 
and  the  most  praised.  If  no  soul-stirring  deeds  of  men 
enchant  and  haunt  the  loftiest  cliffs,  the  traveler  may 
pass  them  by  with  undisturbed  disregard,  conceiving 
them  to  be  simply  massive  heaps  of  discolored  rocks. 
Human  appreciation  of  nature's  handiwork  sometimes 
depends  on  subjective  motives,  and  then  conforms 
with  the  preconceptions  of  the  observer.  The  lovers  of 
nature  disagree  as  seriously  as  do  the  devotees  of  art. 
Few  are  the  landscapes  which  are  universally  known  to 
people  of  culture,  and  still  fewer  those  which  are 
universally  admired.  To  this  limited  class  of  magnifi- 
cent exceptions  possibly  belongs  the  vale  of  Tempe. 

With  later  writers  of  classic  antiquity  Tempe  came 
to  be  axiomatically  considered  as  a  place  of  exemplary 
beauty.  And  modern  literature,  which,  without  ques- 
tioning, has  accepted  so  much  from  the  judgment  and 
imagination  of  remote  generations,  has  adopted  this 
traditional  opinion  regarding  Apollon's  favorite  glen. 
But  Tempe  is  probably  worthy  of  its  many  ages  of 
undisputed  fame,  and  will  continue  in  the  future  as  in 
the  past  to  receive  the  homage  of  poet  and  nature-lover. 

140 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE  141 

The  old  Greeks  seldom  described  natural  scenery. 
They  seem  almost  to  have  lacked  the  ability  by  artistic 
word-painting  on  the  written  page  to  produce  for  the 
reader  an  accurate  picture  of  actually  existing  land- 
scapes. Tempe  is  frequently  named  with  admiration, 
and  some  of  its  significant  features  are  enumerated  by 
the  foremost  writers  of  both  Greece  and  Rome.  But 
their  descriptions,  with  the  exception  of  those  made  by 
historians,  who  refer  to  the  strategic  and  military  im- 
portance of  the  high  and  narrow  defile,  are  merely 
incidental  and  nearly  always  fantastical.  For  of  all 
these  writers  yElian,  the  rhetorician,  is  the  only  one 
who  professedly  undertook  to  describe  minutely  and 
copiously  the  impressive  grandeur  of  Tempe. 

Mythological  associations,  the  names  and  deeds  of 
river-gods  and  heroes  and  nymphs  and  deities  float  into 
every  conception  of  Tempe.  No  light  and  superficial 
study  would  be  adequate  to  determine  whether  it  was 
the  previously  existing  myths  that  fixed  the  attention 
of  the  old  inhabitants  of  Thessaly  upon  the  fascinating 
beauties  of  Tempe,  or  whether  an  appreciative  con- 
sciousness of  the  superb  fitness  of  the  place  did  not 
occasion  the  localizing  of  the  myths  there. 

To  understand  Tempe,  a  knowledge  of  the  sur- 
rounding country  must  precede.  Just  west  of  the  vale 
stretches  out  the  broad,  long,  and  level  Thessalian 
plain,  the  most  extensive  in  Greece.  On  all  sides  the 
plain  is  well  hemmed  in  by  a  high  border  of  mountains. 
Along  the  east  side,  where  the  province  of  Thessaly 
extends  to  the  sea,  the  historic  mountain  range  whose 
three  most  prominent  peaks  are  known  under  the  im- 
mortal names  of  Pelion  and  Ossa  and  Olympos  lies 


142  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

between  the  plain  and  the  rock-fenced  sea.  For  the 
floods  of  water  which  the  mountain  torrents  throw 
down  into  this  vast  Thessalian  basin  there  is  but  one 
chief  outlet,  the  Peneios  River,  which  flows  into  the 
sea  between  Olympos  and  Ossa  through  the  gorge  or 
valley  of  Tempe.  In  ages  remote  indeed,  but  yet  not 
entirely  beyond  the  dim  memory  of  tradition,  this 
spacious  plain  was  not  dry  land,  but  a  lake  of  fresh 
water,  bordered  on  all  sides  by  the  surrounding  moun- 
tains; and  at  a  still  earlier  geological  period  it  was  a 
great  gulf  of  the  ^Egean  Sea.  In  those  days  the  gorge 
of  Tempe  was  in  the  process  of  being  created.  The 
Peneios  did  not  yet  roll  its  waters  through  it,  but  at  a 
place  where  now  stands  the  curious  eroded  rocks  of 
Meteora,  fifty  miles  or  more  westward  from  this  later 
gorge,  tumbled  them  down  from  the  Pindos  Mountains 
into  the  gulf.  Some  oft-repeated  action  of  nature 
gradually  elevated  and  isolated  the  bed  of  the  gulf  so 
that  it  ceased  to  be  a  portion  of  the  sea,  and  became  a 
lake  of  fresh  water.  Then  other  violent  convulsions 
of  the  earth,  aiding  and  hastening  the  action  of  the 
water,  tore  an  opening  through  the  saddle  of  rock 
which  connected  Olympos  and  Ossa;  and  the  liberated 
waters  of  the  lake  ran  on  into  the  sea,  leaving  Thessaly 
a  vast  and  fertile  alluvial  plain. 

Obscure  knowledge  of  this  former  condition  of 
Thessaly  was  kept  in  various  local  myths,  wherein  the 
phenomena  were  explained  by  the  belief  that  some 
god's  power  had  once  rent  the  rocks  that  girdled  the 
waters  in.  The  divinity  which  according  to  old  Greek 
beliefs  was  the  chief  agent  in  causing  disturbances  of 
this  kind  was  the  sea-god  Poseidon,  who,  on  account  of 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE  143 

his  seismic  strength,  bore  the  special  title  of  the  "earth- 
shaker."  To  him  did  the  Thessalians  most  often 
ascribe  the  creation  of  the  breach,  by  splitting  it  out 
with  a  stroke  of  his  trident.  Other  mythists  preferred 
to  add  to  the  stories  of  the  prodigious  deeds  that  were 
performed  by  another  mythological  man  of  strength, 
the  hero  Herakles,  and  ascribed  to  him  the  pushing 
apart  of  the  two  mountains  with  his  hands. 

The  gorge  is  in  some  places  so  narrow  and  its  sides 
so  high  and  straight  that  the  beholder  may  be  able  to 
imagine  how  it  could  be  walled  up  artificially,  the 
waters  of  the  Peneios  stopped,  and  the  plain  of  Thes- 
saly  again  converted  into  an  inland  sea.  This  is  the 
plan  that  suggested  itself  to  Xerxes,  the  king  of  Persia, 
when,  on  his  way  to  conquer  Greece,  he  sailed  over 
from  his  camp  in  Therme  in  a  Sidonian  bark  to  visit 
the  vale  of  Tempe.  He  thought  that  if  the  Thessalians 
had  not  voluntarily  submitted  themselves  to  his  power, 
he  could  easily  have  overcome  and  enslaved  them  by 
closing  Tempe  and  flooding  the  entire  plain. 

Tempe  is  not  only  the  great  outlet  of  the  plain,  but 
is  also  the  chief  and  easiest  road  from  Thessaly  into 
Makedonia  and  other  countries  north.  By  going 
through  this  breach  the  traveler  from  Thessaly  can 
get  outside  of  the  mountain  ranges,  and  then,  by 
traversing  the  narrow  valleys  that  lie  along  the  coast 
between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  can  reach  the  coun- 
try round  Thessalonike.  It  has  often  been  a  place  of 
defense  against  invading  armies. 

Tempe  is  most  easily  approached  from  the  west,  by 
way  of  Bolos  and  Larisa.  From  Larisa  an  ill-kept 
wagon-road  leads  across  the  marshy  plain  to  the  mouth 


144  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

t 

•-.—•.-..   -   »-»—  <••  -rai^Kswr^       -••  "  ' 

of  the  gorge.  This  is  the  road  which  after  passing 
through  Tempe  goes  on  to  Thessalonike  and  Constanti- 
nople. In  approaching  Tempe  by  this  way,  the  gran- 
deur and  grace  of  the  mountains  in  front,  especially  of 
Olympos,  appear  to  increase  at  every  step.  The  de- 
pression between  the  outspurs  of  Olympos  and  of  Ossa 
is  plainly  seen  from  the  hill  of  Larisa.  But  even  from 
much  nearer  the  uninformed  eye  would  not  be  ready 
to  believe  that  there  is  an  opening  so  low  as  to  admit 
the  waters  of  the  Peneios.  The  wagon-track  leads  in 
a  straight  line  across  the  plain,  while  the  river,  after 
flowing  past  Larisa,  bends  slightly  to  the  north,  and 
cannot  be  seen  from  the  road  until,  after  nearing  the 
gorge,  its  waters  bend  south  again  so  as  to  find  their 
egress  through  the  pass. 

The  gorge  does  not  begin  nor  end  abruptly.  For 
most  of  its  length  it  is  quite  narrow;  but  it  opens  out 
at  either  extremity  into  fan-shaped  valleys.  It  is 
today  a  very  lonely  place.  Probably  it  has  always 
been  such.  The  extensive  tracts  of  wild  and  almost 
impassable  mountain  wastes  on  either  side,  but  es- 
pecially in  the  Olympian  region  to  the  north,  are  still 
the  haunts  of  various  kinds  of  game.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  there  stood  near  the  mouth  of  the  defile  a  town 
called  Lykostomon,  or  "Wolf's  Mouth."  The  same 
name  was  applied  also  to  the  pass  itself,  and  seems  to 
have  been  in  vogue  for  a  thousand  years  down  to  the 
last  century.  The  cavernous  slopes  of  Olympos  seem 
to  have  been  a  favorite  gathering-place  for  these  de- 
structive animals ;  and  even  yet  the  neighboring  country 
is  not  free  from  them. 

From  the  hamlet  of  Baba,  where  the  defile  begins,  to 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE  145 

the  ruined  bridge  at  its  eastern  embouchure,  the  dis- 
tance is  a  walk  of  about  an  hour  and  a  half.  The  road 
keeps  along  the  south  bank  of  the  river.  In  many 
places  the  cleft  was  originally  no  wider  than  the  river. 
And  the  road  in  these  narrower  necks  has  been  hewn 
out  from  the  overhanging  cliffs  of  Ossa.  Only  on 
the  Ossa  side  was  the  construction  of  a  road  compara- 
tively easy.  On  the  Olympian  side  the  cliffs  of  solid 
stone  rise  in  many  places  straight  up  from  the  water 
of  the  river  to  a  height  of  several  hundred  feet.  But 
even  along  the  foot  of  the  rocks  of  Olympos  there  are 
occasionally  little  nooks  of  level  land.  In  each  of 
these  sequestered  spots  some  solitary  miller  or  fisher- 
man has  taken  up  his  abode.  His  lonely  life  recalls 
that  of  the  mediaeval  hermits,  who,  moved  by  a  differ- 
ent longing  after  tranquillity  and  freedom  from  care, 
suspended  their  ascetic  cells  in  caves  along  the  perpen- 
dicular cliffs  of  Olympos.  How  it  was  possible  for 
these  odd-souled  men  to  reach  their  aerial  dens  is  a 
complete  mystery  to  the  beholder  who  strains  his  neck 
to  gaze  up  at  these  dizzy  heights.  But  that  by  some 
way  or  other  their  lofty  retreats  could  be  reached  is 
proven  from  the  fact  that  among  these  same  caves  there 
are  a  few  which,  being  now,  as  in  the  days  of  Virgil's 
Aristaeus,  occupied  by  wild  bees,  are  periodically  visited 
by  venturesome  honey-gatherers.  People  here  hold 
their  life  at  a  cheap  price  when  some  attractive  danger 
invites  them  to  be  foolhardy. 

In  ancient  times  when  traffic  by  sea  was  not  so  easy 
as  it  now  is,  traveling  through  Tempe  may  have  been 
more  frequent  than  it  is  today.  In  many  places,  where 
the  road  lies  upon  the  smoother  surface  of  the  natural 


146  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

rock,  two  deep  furrows  about  three  feet  distant  from 
each  other  are  still  to  be  seen.  These  are  the  ruts  that 
were  worn  into  the  rock  by  the  cars  and  chariots  of 
Greeks  and  Romans  who  for  centuries  wheeled  along 
this  military  and  mercantile  road.  To  the  Romans 
who  came  seeking  conquest  in  these  parts,  Tempe  was 
a  valuable  military  post.  It  was  frequently  utilized  in 
their  wars  against  the  Makedonian  kings,  and  against 
such  tribes  of  the  northern  Greeks  as  at  times  lifted 
up  the  sword  of  patriot  against  the  western  invaders. 
It  is  also  mentioned  in  the  civil  wars  of  Rome  that  were 
so  fiercely  decided  by  mighty  battles  fought  on  Hel- 
lenic soil.  When  the  irresistible  Caesar  followed  his 
powerful  but  unfortunate  rival  Pompey  into  Thessaly, 
he  sent  in  advance  the  lieutenant  Longinus  to  fortify 
and  hold  the  defile  of  Tempe.  Close  by  the  road 
through  the  gorge  is  an  almost  obliterated  Latin  in- 
scription which  the  natives  here  being  unable  to 
decipher  and  understand  have  thought  to  be  a  "salt 
list,"  as  they  call  it,  in  which  is  recorded  the  fixed  re- 
muneration given  to  the  laborers  who  were  compelled 
by  corvee  service  to  construct  the  road.  What  the 
inscription  really  states  is  that  this  lieutenant  of  Caesar 
fortified  the  pass ;  "Cassius  Longinus  pro.  cos.  Tempe 
munivit." 

It  was  through  Tempe  that  Pompey  escaped  from 
Thessaly  after  the  total  defeat  of  his  hosts  of  Romans, 
Greeks,  and  barbarians  on  the  world-famed  battlefield 
of  Pharsalos. .  Ploutarch  in  his  life  of  this  proud  and 
unfortunate  hero  tells  of  how  the  defeated  chieftain, 
deserted  by  all  his  followers,  fled  from  the  field  of 
defeat  to  the  city  of  Larisa  and  from  there  to  the  vale 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE  147 

of  Tempe,  where,  overcome  by  thirst,  he  climbed  down 
to  the  river,  threw  himself  on  his  face,  and  drank  of 
its  flood.  Then  he  stood  up  again,  and  passing  on  foot 
through  the  gorge,  went  down  to  the  sea.  There  he 
found  a  vessel  that  bore  him  to  Egypt,  where,  instead 
of  retrieving  his  misfortunes,  he  was  to  lose  his  life 
by  a  traitor's  hand. 

About  midway  in  the  pass  the  rocky  wall  of  Ossa 
is  cleft  by  a  colossal  opening,  up  the  sides  of  which  it 
is  possible  to  climb  toward  the  top  of  the  mountain. 
On  the  summit  of  one  of  the  peaks  that  overhang  this 
side-gorge,  several  hundred  feet  higher  than  the  road 
by  the  river,  are  the  ruins  of  an  old  Byzantine  forti- 
fication, one  of  the  proofs  that  the  pass  was  guarded 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  These  ruins,  like  similar  ones  in 
other  parts  of  Greece,  are  in  popular  lore  and  in  the 
songs  of  the  peasants  and  shepherds  called  the  "Castle 
of  the  Maiden  Fair,"  and  are  associated  with  a  story 
about  a  beautiful  lady  who  lived  safe  within  the  walls 
of  her  impregnable  chateau  until  a  Turkish  robber 
gained  entrance  disguised  as  a  needy  woman  and  then 
opened  its  gates  to  his  ambushed  companions. 

The  water  of  the  Peneios  is  somewhat  muddy  be- 
cause of  its  long  course  through  the  soft-soiled  plains 
of  Thessaly.  Its  color  is  in  charming  contrast  with  the 
varied  hues  of  plants  and  rocks  that  line  its  banks. 
Luxuriant  trees  overhang  the  silvery  stream.  Climbing 
plants  and  vines  wind  up  among  the  trees.  Smilax  and 
ivy  fasten  themselves  against  the  rocky  cliffs  of  the 
gorge.  Great  plane  trees  shoot  heavy  branches  out 
over  the  waters  of  the  river  as  if  to  inhale  and  imbibe 
the  sunny  moisture  more  lustily.  Many  of  the  trees 


148  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

stand  even  within  the  calmer  waters  along  the  borders 
of  the  stream.  Every  available  space  is  teeming  in 
exuberant  confusion  with  trees  and  bushes  and  plants. 
Underneath  the  narrow  strip  of  earth  and  rock  that 
constitutes  the  road,  numerous  crystal  springs  gurgle 
out  into  the  duller-colored  Peneios.  Their  clear  water 
wanders  down  for  some  distance  in  the  larger  stream 
before  finally  becoming  commingled  with  the  murkier 
flood.  No  wonder  that  the  best  songs  of  the  wild 
nightingales  are  still  to  be  heard  in  such  a  place. 

On  acount  of  the  narrowness  of  the  pass,  the  silence 
that  often  reigns  there,  the  gigantic  overhanging  moun- 
tains with  their  solid  sides  mangled  and  torn  by  seismic 
convulsions,  the  heavy  shades  cast  by  the  cliffs,  the 
slow  majesty  of  the  river,  the  insecure  loneliness  of  the 
defile,  the  vale  is  a  place  of  indescribably  luring 
grandeur.  And  were  it  not  that  this  more  somber 
aspect  of  Tempe  is  wonderfully  softened  and  toned  by 
the  vegetation  and  water,  it  would  be  regarded  more  as 
a  place  of  oppressive  savageness  than  of  most  gra- 
ciously mingled  beauty  and  magnificence. 

But  only  under  the  spell  of  ancient  memories  is 
Tempe  to  be  enjoyed  to  its  fullest.  The  sacred  char- 
acter of  the  grove  animated  its  beauty.  Tempe  was  a 
holy  place.  The  religious  rites  that  were  in  vogue 
here,  and  the  mythic  occurrences  that  were  recalled 
in  its  shady  recesses  tended  to  lessen  the  awfulness  of 
the  scenery.  The  deity  whose  exploits  were  most 
hallowed  here  was  Apollon.  Here  he  fell  in  love  with 
the  nymph  Daphne.  But  Daphne,  a  rustic  and  free 
daughter  of  the  river,  had  no  desire  to  surrender  her- 
self to  Apollon;  and  in  order  to  escape  his  too  earnest 


THE  VALE  OF  TEMPE  149 

wooings  preferred  to  be  metamorphosed  by  her  father's 
magic  art  into  a  bush  of  laurel.  Apollon,  in  memory 
of  the  maiden  whom  he  could  not  win,  adopted  as  his 
sacred  emblem  the  beautiful  species  of  tree  into  which 
she  had  been  marvelously  transformed. 

After  Apollon,  as  god  of  prophecy,  had  chosen 
Delphi  on  the  slopes  of  Parnasos  to  be  his  sanctuary, 
to  Tempe  he  came  in  order  to  purify  himself  by  its 
waters  from  the  stains  of  violence  which  he  had  in- 
curred by  slaying  the  pythonic  monster  which  had  tried 
to  prevent  him  from  establishing  his  Delphic  shrine. 
And  after  this  ceremonial  purification,  breaking  twigs 
from  his  favorite  tree  of  daphne,  he  twisted  them  into 
a  wreath  round  his  head,  and  with  this  as  a  crown  of 
victory  he  returned  to  Delphi.  Thus  did  the  daphne- 
tree,  the  poetic  laurel,  become  holy  on  Parnasos. 
And  in  memory  thereof  the  prizes  given  to  the  victors 
in  the  gymnic  and  poetic  contests,  which  used  to  take 
place  whenever  the  great  Apollonian  festivals  were 
celebrated  at  Delphi,  consisted  of  a  chaplet  woven 
from  daphnic  laurel  brought  by  special  envoys  from 
Tempe  to  the  place  of  the  contests.  The  envoys,  all 
of  whom  were  young  men,  led  by  one  whose  parents 
were  still  alive,  came  to  Tempe  and  after  the  offering 
of  sacrifices  at  altars  in  the  grove,  cut  the  sprays  of 
laurel,  and  with  great  ceremony  carried  them  back 
along  the  Pythiad  road  to  Delphi. 

Daphne-trees,  the  noble  laurels  which  furnished  such 
befitting  crowns  for  poets  and  youths  who  aspired 
to  handsome  deeds,  do  not  now  grow  in  plenty  along 
the  sacred  stream  of  Apollon  and  in  his  sacred  grove. 
His  swans  no  longer  float  on  the  rippling  waves  under 


150  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  plane  trees,  and  among  the  tangled  bushes.  The 
songs  of  high  and  gentle  culture  were  hushed  ages 
ago  in  these  re-ensavaged  regions.  The  wild  songs  of 
the  klephts  that  in  later  centuries  were  attuned  to  hopes 
for  freedom  on  Ossa's  slopes  and  in  Olympos'  caves 
were  dearer  to  Ares,  the  patron  of  bloody  struggles, 
than  to  Apollon,  the  spirit  of  civilization.  So  far  as 
the  deeds  of  man  have  contributed  to  hallow  Tempe, 
there  are  now  no  notable  remains  in  the  grove.  Only 
in  the  souls  of  those  who  know  the  old  lore,  who  unite 
into  one  great  eternity  the  choice  acts  of  all  the  ages, 
do  the  memories  that  hang  among  the  cliffs  of  Tempe 
still  possess  reality. 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN 

The  country  which  bears  the  name  of  Thessaly  in- 
cludes within  its  limits  the  most  extensive  sweeps  of 
level  land  in  all  Greece.  It  is  a  natural  basin  whose 
fertile  alluvial  floor  was  once  the  bottom  of  a  lake,  and 
whose  sides  are  high  rows  of  mountains.  From  the 
Othrys  range  which  is  the  southern  limit  of  Thessaly, 
a  long  low  spur  of  hills  reaches  northward  over  the 
level  expanse,  dividing  it  into  two  parts.  The  western 
division,  which  is  the  larger  one,  stretches  out  in  un- 
interrupted flatness  as  far  as  to  the  foot  of  the  Pindos 
Mountains  which  border  Thessaly  in  the  direction  of 
the  setting  sun.  The  eastern  portion  is  divided  into 
three  smaller  districts  which  are  named  after  the  cities 
which  they  nourish,  and  are  called  the  plains  of 
Halmyros,  of  Bolos,  and  of  Larisa. 

Geological  observation  clearly  proves  that  no  incon- 
siderable portion  of  Thessaly  was  permanently  under 
water  in  Ogygian  times.  In  those  days  there  was  no 
adequate  egress  for  the  floods  of  rain  and  melting  snow 
which  came  down  into  the  plain  from  the  mountains 
all  around.  But  some  action  of  nature,  either  gradual 
or  violent,  finally  cut  an  opening  through  the  saddle 
of  rock  which  once  held  Olympos  and  Ossa  together, 
and  through  this  opening  the  accumulated  waters  of 
Thessaly  found  a  passage  to  the  yEgean  Sea.  This 
pass  is  the  renowned  vale  of  Tempe,  through  which 
the  Peneios  River  flows.  This  river,  which  is  one  of 
the  widest  and  fullest  of  all  the  Grecian  streams,  takes 


152  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

its  start  from  springs  in  the  Lakmon  and  Pindos 
Mountains  and  flows  eastward  across  the  plain.  On 
its  way  it  receives  the  waters  of  most  of  the  other 
rivers  that  drain  the  valleys  of  Thessaly  and  the  inner 
slopes  of  its  periphery  of  mountains.  During  the  drier 
seasons  of  the  year  the  Peneios  is  a  gentle,  steady- 
flowing,  heavy-looking  stream.  But  when  copious 
rains  or  sudden  thaws  take  place  on  the  near  moun- 
tains, then  the  Peneios  swells  and  widens,  overflowing 
its  low  banks  and  changing  the  near-lying  prairies  into 
stagnant  seas.  Thus  even  down  to  our  own  day  come 
frequent  though  less-noted  repetitions  of  that  ancient 
flood  which  according  to  one  form  of  the  story  took 
place  when  Devkalion  was  king.  In  this  deluge  all  the 
inhabitants  were  drowned,  except  Devkalion  and  his 
consort  Pyrrha. 

Notwithstanding  the  sluggishness  of  the  Peneios 
and  its  tributaries  there  are  only  two  lakes  in  all  of 
Thessaly.  Xenias  is  a  body  of  deep  and  crystal  water 
in  a  sunken  portion  of  the  tableland  which  lies  in  the 
southwest  corner  of  Thessaly  near  the  junction  of  the 
Pindos  and  the  Othrys  Mountains.  Its  overflow  winds 
off  through  the  hills  at  the  foot  of  Pindos  until  it 
reaches  the  plain.  Thence  it  crawls  on  to  the  Peneios. 
The  other  lake  is  now  called  Karla  and  in  ancient 
times  was  known  as  the  "Bcebean."  It  lies  under  the 
sloping  sides  of  Pelion.  It  never  becomes  dry  because 
the  bed  of  the  Peneios  is  higher  than  the  bottom  of 
the  lake.  Insignificant  are  the  ruins  of  ancient  Boebe, 
the  town  which  in  classic  antiquity  stood  by  the  lake. 
Likewise  few  are  the  vestiges  of  the  mediaeval  town  of 
Karla.  Both  are  succeeded  by  a  fishermen's  settlement 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  153 

called  Kanalia.  Unlike  Xenias,  the  lake  of  Karla  is 
marshy  and  malarious.  It  abounds  in  eels  and  fishes 
which  the  men  of  Kanalia  gather  and  send  off  to  the 
markets  of  the  surrounding  towns. 

The  deep  alluvial  soil  of  Thessaly  is  notably  pro- 
ductive. In  verse  and  in  prose  did  ancient  fame  record 
its  fertility.  The  country  round  about  Halmyros, 
which  in  antiquity  bore  the  name  of  "the  Krokian 
Fields,"  produces  today  a  variety  of  tobacco  which  is 
eagerly  purchased  at  the  highest  prices  in  the  great 
markets  of  Egypt  and  the  Levant.  In  the  lower  lands 
remunerative  rice  plantations  have  been  established 
during  these  later  years.  Likewise  successful  attention 
has  been  devoted  to  the  production  of  the  sugar-beet 
and  to  the  manufacture  of  sugar.  In  proper  season 
the  level  plain  waves  with  vast  fields  of  wheat  or  corn 
or  tobacco.  The  mountains  are  covered  with  luxurious 
vines  which  bear  in  season  their  most  lusciously  tinted 
colossal  clusters  of  fruit.  The  warm  and  protected 
slopes  upon  the  long  sides  of  Pelion,  besides  producing 
such  crops  and  vegetables  and  fruits  as  grow  in  the 
plain,  are  diversified  with  olive  groves  and  with  or- 
chards of  oranges  and  citrons.  Great  droves  of  cattle, 
beautiful  horses  of  ancient  breed,  and  buffalos,  which 
some  of  the  natives  use  as  drag-beasts  for  their 
Hesiodic  ploughs  and  wooden  carts,  pasture  in  the 
marshy  meadows.  Flocks  of  countless  sheep  and  goats 
browse  in  the  mountains  during  the  summer  and  are 
brought  down  into  the  warmer  lowlands  on  the  ap- 
proach of  winter.  In  a  word,  Thessaly  if  properly 
governed  and  cared  for  would  be  one  of  the  richest 
and  most  productive  countries  in  this  part  of  the  world. 


154  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

The  peculiar  fertility  of  these  lands  has  had  con- 
siderable influence  upon  the  history  of  Thessaly  and 
the  countries  south  of  it.  In  prehistoric  and  early 
historic  times  there  took  place  a  number  of  migrations 
from  more  northern  countries  into  the  land  which 
later  became  known  as  Greece.  Most  of  these  wander- 
ing hordes  entered  the  more  southern  parts  of  Greece 
by  way  of  Thessaly,  and  most  of  them  made  their  first 
settlement  here,  staying  until  driven  farther  by  some 
subsequent  and  less  enervated  tribe.  Some  of  these 
hordes  entered  Thessaly  from  the  northeast  by  passing 
through  the  defiles  near  Olympos,  and  others  came 
from  the  northwest  through  the  passes  over  the  Pindos, 
from  Epeiros.  They  settled  round  the  edge  of  the 
plain  so  as  to  have  the  advantage  of  both  lowland  and 
hill.  Each  horde  of  immigrants  remained  in  possession 
of  the  country  and  its  prized  resources  of  pasturage 
and  the  chase  until  forced  to  give  up  their  lands  to 
fresh  and  stronger  bands  of  invaders  and  to  flee  farther 
south.  Thus  did  these  successive  fugitive  and  migra- 
tory tribes  that  lived  for  an  indefinite  period  of  time 
in  Thessaly  gradually  come  to  occupy  a  good  portion 
of  all  Greece.  Thessaly  may  be  regarded  as  the  cradle 
of  much  that  goes  to  make  up  what  we  call  classic 
Hellenism.  All  the  tribes  that  had  once  lived  in  Thes- 
saly never  forgot  the  great  mountain  of  Olympos 
which  rises  so  majestically  at  the  northeast  corner  of 
the  plain.  They  never  ceased  to  hold  it  in  their 
memory  as  the  cloud-hidden  home  of  their  greatest 
and  common  gods.  True  indeed  many  of  the  old  tra- 
ditions and  myths  extend  back  to  a  time  prior  to  the 
occupation  of  Thessaly  by  these  Hellenic  tribes,  or  even 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  155 

were  brought  into  Greece  not  through  Thessaly  at  all, 
being  from  beyond  the  seas,  from  Egypt  or  the  East ; 
but  such  transmarine  traditions  were  the  property  of 
only  a  portion  of  the  Greeks,  while  Thessalian  Olympos 
and  its  deities  became  common  property  and  a  subject 
of  common  pride. 

Most  indications  point  to  the  probability  of  the 
belief  that  Greece  was  originally  peopled  by  wanderers 
who  came  overland  from  Europe  rather  than  by  sea- 
farers who  would  have  come  by  boats  from  Asia  or 
Egypt  or  the  islands.  Those  who  entered  Greece  from 
Makedonia  and  Thfake  by  way  of  the  passes  round 
Olympos  may  have  been  the  first  to  come  and  settle  in 
this  peninsula.  Of  these  Makedonian  and  Thrakic 
tribes  there  were  kept  in  story  many  interesting  frag- 
ments of  lore.  To  these  tribes  belonged  the  peoples 
who  once  dwelt  at  the  foot  of  Olympos  and  round  the 
town  of  Arne  in  Thessaly,  and  there  worshiped  the 
Pierian  goddesses,  until  driven  away  by  other  bands  of 
invaders  into  Thessaly  they  migrated  farther  south, 
took  up  their  home  in  Boeotia,  and  established  on  the 
green  slopes  of  Helikon  the  Pierian  worship  of  these 
same  nine  goddesses,  the  Muses. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  mention  all  the  tribes  known 
or  suspected  to  have  come  into  Thessaly  from  Epeiros 
across  the  Pindos  Mountains.  But  among  these  tribes 
was  that  of  the  "Hellenes,"  which  after  coming  into 
Greece  became  so  prominent  that  its  name  in  time 
became  the  common  appellation  for  all  Greeks.  It  is 
not  probable  that  the  Hellenes  were  the  first  tribe  that 
came  into  Thessaly  from  Epeiros,  but  we  cannot  easily 
name  any  other  earlier  Epeirotic  people  which  under- 


156  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

took  this  migration.  With  them  the  Hellenes  brought 
into  Thessaly  and  later  into  all  Greece  a  reverence  for 
the  great  god  of  the  Epeirotic  peoples,  the  oracular 
Zevs  of  Dodona.  The  cult  of  Dodonsean  Zevs  and 
the  bare-footed  priests  who  ministered  at  his  shrine 
are  mentioned  by  Achilles  in  the  Iliad.  But  although 
Zevs  of  Dodona  was  a  potent  god,  and  his  cult  was 
revered  in  the  influential  tribe  which  imposed  its  name 
on  all  the  Greeks,  nevertheless  this  special  cult  never 
was  accepted  as  popular  and  never  became  common 
everywhere  in  Greece. 

In  the  course  of  time  there  came  down  into  Thessaly 
a  new  and  wild  and  haughty  tribe  from  Epeiros. 
These  were  the  Thessals.  They  were  not  entire 
strangers  to  the  tribes  which  had  preceded  them.  In 
fact  they  were  kinsmen  to  their  predecessors.  The 
peoples  which  they  found  holding  possession  of  the 
land  were  either  driven  off  into  a  more  southern 
province  of  Greece  like  all  previous  streams  of  invad- 
ers, or  else  were  kept  by  the  conquerors  as  a  sub- 
servient and  despised  class  of  enslaved  serfs.  The 
Thessals  were  a  strong  and  warlike  race  and  quickly 
obtained  the  mastery  of  the  country.  Once  in  posses- 
sion they  never  lost  it,  in  ancient  times.  From  them 
the  country  received  and  kept  its  known  name  of 
"Thessaly."  At  the  time  when  the  Homeric  poems 
were  written  the  Thessals  were  not  yet  in  this  country, 
but  were  still  living  in  their  Epeirotic  fatherland.  The 
plains  of  the  Peneios  had  possessed  no  general  and 
common  appellation  before  the  Thessals  came.  Some 
localities  had  borne  the  name  of  the  tribes  which  lived 
in  them;  while  other  places  had  received  some  name 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  157 

suggested  by  the  physical  appearance  and  natural  char- 
acteristics of  the  country. 

Many  of  the  myths  of  Greece  and  some  of  its  most 
primitive  history  originated  in  the  eastern  and  south- 
ern parts  of  Thessaly.  In  eastern  Thessaly,  the  giants 
in  their  rebellion  and  war  against  the  gods  tried  to 
reach  the  top  of  Olympos  and  gain  entrance  to  its 
celestial  abodes  by  piling  Pelion  upon  Ossa  and  using 
as  a  scaling  ladder  the  united  heights  of  the  two  moun- 
tains. On  and  round  Pelion  lived  the  Centaurs,  and 
near  them  lived  their  enemies  the  Lapiths.  On  Pelion 
took  place  the  wedding  feast  of  Perithous  the  Lapith 
king,  to  which  the  Centaurs  had  been  invited.  The 
wedding  feast  which  gradually  converted  itself  into  a 
murderous  combat  between  the  Lapiths  and  their  rude 
guests  has  been  often  a  fruitful  theme  for  sculpture 
as  well  as  for  poetry.  In  this  part  of  Thessaly  was 
Pherse  where  lived  Alkestis,  the  queen  who  so  loved 
the  king  Admetos  that  she  gave  herself  to  Thanatos 
the  god  of  death  and  by  dying  in  place  of  Admetos 
caused  her  royal  husband  to  be  allowed  to  live  on  and 
enjoy  the  span  of  years  which  Thanatos  took  from  her 
life  and  transferred  to  his. 

This  same  town  of  Pherae,  which,  during  these  later 
centuries  when  Turkish  tyrants  held  all  Greece  in 
bondage,  after  losing  its  ancient  name  took  a  new  one 
from  the  alien  language  of  foreign  settlers  and  was 
called  Belestino,  has  been  honored  by  another  distinc- 
tion almost  worthy  to  rival  that  which  was  attached 
to  it  by  the  boundless  devotion  of  Alkestis.  It  was  the 
home  of  the  poet  and  patriot  Rhegas  who  before  the 
outburst  of  the  war  for  freedom  composed  patriot 


158  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

songs  to  inspire  and  encourage  his  countrymen,  and 
died  a  martyr's  death  to  give  a  beginning  to  the 
struggle  for  liberty.  One  or  two  of  his  songs  are  still 
known  by  every  schoolboy  of  Greece. 

That  the  oldest  myths  of  Thessaly  were  localized 
chiefly  along  the  seaside  of  the  country,  and  especially 
round  about  that  magnificent  opening  into  the  ^Egean 
waters,  the  noble  harbor-gulf  of  Pagae,  would  render 
not  incredible  the  conviction  of  some  new  scholars 
that  many  Thessalic  myths  were  brought  here  in  ships 
from  across  the  seas.  If  they  actually  were  imported 
by  way  of  the  waters,  their  origin  and  provenance  can- 
not yet  be  determined  easily.  Nevertheless  it  is  not 
hard  to  find  motives  for  believing  that  colonizers  from 
Krete,  or  some  other  eastern  country  came  hither  and, 
settling  round  this  gulf,  planted  some  of  these  well- 
fated  traditions. 

The  Gulf  of  Pagae  is  the  largest  of  Greece.  When 
the  Makedonian  kings  became  masters  here,  they  held 
high  esteem  for  the  mercantile  and  military  impor- 
tance of  this  harbor.  Demetrios  the  "town-taker" 
founded  a  new  city  on  its  shores,  and  made  himself 
eponymous  to  it.  This  town  grew  populous  and  pros- 
perous, and  continued  to  be  rich  and  active  until  Arab 
pirates  led  by  the  renegade  Damian  plundered  and 
devastated  it,  896  years  after  Christ.  The  modern  city 
which  is  today  the  successor  of  mythic  lolkos  and 
prosperous  Demetrias  and  the  other  flourishing  places 
that  formerly  were  here,  is  the  new-built  Bolos.  The 
exact  site  of  Bolos  has  indeed  been  inhabited  for 
centuries,  from  the  time  when  Thessaly  was  yet  a 
domain  of  mediaeval  Constantinople.  The  Byzantine 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  159 

castle  which  stood  until  a  few  years  ago  bore  witness 
to  the  oldness  of  mediaeval  Bolos.  But  under  Turkish 
control  it  was  merely  a  slovenly  and  sickly  wharfing- 
place  for  the  small  craft  which  plied  into  its  port.  Its 
prosperity  dates  only  from  the  annexation  of  Thessaly 
to  Greece,  which  happened  in  1881. 

Just  as  it  is  not  probable  that  the  earliest  incomers 
into  Thessaly  came  from  over  the  seas,  so  also  is  it 
unlikely  that  all  of  the  cities  that  prospered  here  in 
primitive  times  were  along  this  Gulf  of  Pagse.  At 
least  in  later  centuries,  along  the  west  border  of  Thes- 
saly near  to  the  foot  of  Pindos  and  along  the  north 
boundary  near  to  the  Kambounian  range  and  by  the 
shores  of  the  Peneios  there  were  populous  towns.  That 
these  were  very  old  settlements  is  evident.  But  they 
never  came  into  close  and  influential  relationship  with 
outlying  countries  and  therefore  always  remained  un- 
historic.  Not  far  distant  from  Pindos  was  the  town  of 
Trikka  which  was  sufficiently  ancient  to  be  mentioned 
by  the  troubadours  of  the  Iliad.  Here  was  the  native 
place  of  the  two  leeches  that  accompanied  the  Achaeans 
against  Troy.  That  they  were  healers  of  some  skill 
is  true.  Otherwise  their  names  would  never  have  so 
honorably  found  a  place  in  the  Iliad's  songs.  But  one 
could,  perhaps,  find  that  Podaleirios  and  Machaon 
were  more  like  savage  medicine-men  than  like  modern 
physicians.  Perhaps  they  were  not  complete  strangers 
to  the  arts  of  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  and  used  charms 
and  spells  in  their  healings.  At  least  Thessaly  was  a 
favorite  home  of  witchcraft.  Especially  noted  were  the 
Thessalic  women  for  their  proficiency  in  all  kinds  of 
magic.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Goethe  in  his 


160  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Faust  sets  some  of  his  thaumaturgic  scenes  in  Thessaly. 
There  exists  a  most  extraordinary  and  jolly  story 
composed  in  Hellenistic  times  which  describes  an  ad- 
venturesome youth  who  resolved  to  go  to  Thessaly  for 
the  purpose  of  seeing  marvels  and  prodigies.  A  flying 
man,  or  even  a  human  being  just  undergoing  conver- 
sion into  stone,  were  among  the  most  insignificant 
sights  he  expected  to  witness  from  the  art  of  the 
Thessalian  hags.  Perhaps  he  might  chance  to  see  them 
bring  the  moon  down  from  the  sky;  for  this  act  was 
reputed  to  be  within  their  power.  His  expectations 
were  more  than  realized,  but  not  exactly  in  accordance 
with  what  would  have  been  his  own  choice.  For,  hav- 
ing in  a  moment  of  too  great  confidence  consented  to  be 
momentarily  turned  into  a  donkey,  the  magician  who 
performed  the  metamorphosis  forgot  to  provide  for  his 
speedy  return  to  human  shape.  And  the  adventures 
of  asinal  Loukios  while  under  his  guise  of  donkey 
were  most  ludicrously  pitiable. 

Northwest  of  Trikka,  in  the  farthest  corner  of 
Thessaly,  is  the  small  town  of  Kalambaka.  In  the 
Middle  Ages  Kalambaka  was  an  episcopal  see.  The 
number  of  bishoprics  in  Byzantiac  Thessaly  was 
notably  large,  as  one  can  learn  from  the  pages 
of  Le  Quien.  The  cathedral  of  Kalambaka  is  still 
well  preserved,  although  it  was  built  not  less  than 
six  hundred  years  ago.  Just  back  of  Kalambaka 
stand  the  strange  natural  columns  on  top  of  which  are 
the  yet  stranger  Meteora  monasteries.  How  mediaeval 
men  succeeded  in  first  climbing  to  the  top  of  these 
wonderful  natural  pedestals  and  in  building  their 
abodes  upon  them  is  a  curious  question.  Monks  and 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  161 

visitors  now  ascend  by  hanging  ladders  or  by  being 
placed  in  a  net  and  hauled  up  by  a  windlass.  In  the 
troublous  days  of  foreign  despotism  and  the  prevalence 
of  brigandage  it  was  not  entirely  bad  fortune  to  be  a 
monk  and  dwell  in  ease  and  comparative  security  on 
top  of  those  pinnacles  of  nature.  Among  the  noted 
men  who  here  lived  a  life  of  asceticism  was  the  last 
Romseic  king  of  Thessaly,  Urosch  Palseolog,  who  be- 
came a  Meteoran  monk,  and  was  appointed  abbot, 
after  an  end  had  been  made  to  his  kingdom  by  the 
terrible  Bajazet. 

Although  Thessaly  took  a  very  early  start  in  Hel- 
lenic civilization,  as  is  proven  not  only  by  the  myths 
but  also  by  the  remains  of  ancient  citadels  and  tombs 
and  other  antiquities,  yet  this  country  did  not  keep 
steady  pace  in  the  procession  of  progress,  and  in 
historic  times  was  left  far  behind  by  other  portions  of 
Greece.  Thessaly  remained  at  a  standstill  while  the 
cities  of  Ionia  and  Attika  and  most  of  the  Peloponnesos 
were  ever  advancing.  Thessaly  became  in  some  way 
isolated  from  the  movement  that  carried  the  other 
Greeks  along  and  kept  them  in  touch,  either  friendly 
or  antagonistic,  with  each  other.  When  Athens  was 
at  the  height  of  her  splendor,  under  Themistokles  and 
Perikles,  the  Thessal  men  were  regarded  as  semi- 
barbarous.  They  had  no  close  bond  with  the  rest  of 
Greece.  They  were  not  even  united  among  themselves. 
Each  large  city,  as  for  example  Larisa  and  Pherae,  had 
its  own  tagos  or  tyrant,  and  its  own  magnates.  Among 
these  tyrants  there  at  times  existed  a  kind  of  confed- 
eration. And  some  of  them  might  have  longed  for  a 
"united  Thessaly." 


162  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

In  a  country  like  Thessaly  it  is  frequently  the  case 
that  a  wide  chasm  separates  the  rich  from  the  poor.  It 
was  so  here  in  ancient  days  when  most  of  the  laborers 
were  glebe-bound  serfs,  and  the  rich  were  landed  lords. 
So  is  it  in  Thessaly  yet  today.  Among  the  rich  old 
tyrants  of  long  ago  was  Skopas  who  ruled  from  his 
fortress  in  the  town  of  Krannon.  His  fame  lasts  down 
to  our  times,  not  because  of  any  deeds  of  his  but  be- 
cause one  of  the  mightiest  lyric  poets  of  the  classic 
age,  in  a  great  triumphal  ode,  sang  the  wealth  and 
power  of  Skopas  and  his  offspring. 

The  inhabitants  of  one  Thessalian  city  saw  no  shame 
or  inhumanity  in  capturing  the  inhabitants  of  another 
and  selling  them  as  slaves.  The  town  of  Pagasae  on 
the  gulf  was  one  of  the  most  widely  known  slave 
markets.  The  serf -like  inhabitants  of  the  country  dis- 
tricts today  live  in  small  settlements  on  the  lands  of 
their  lords,  dwelling  in  huts  built  sometimes  of  stone, 
but  more  frequently  of  mud  bricks,  or  of  osiers  daubed 
over  with  mortar  of  mud.  These  houses  oftenest  are 
but  one  story  high.  The  floor  is  the  natural  one  of 
mother  earth.  Each  house  often  contains  an  apart- 
ment for  the  other  farm  animals  that  are  of  a  lower 
status  than  the  serfs.  Groups  of  such  houses  are  called 
by  the  Turkish  name  of  tsiflik.  It  seems  that  this 
tsiflik  system  was  first  introduced  by  the  Turks,  at 
least  in  its  present  form.  The  Greek  landlords  who 
now  own  the  country  have  not  yet  found  in  their 
hearts  sufficient  love  for  their  degraded  countrymen 
to  better  their  condition  at  some  personal  sacrifice. 
The  tsiflik-men  pay  all  taxes  and  till  the  fields,  keeping 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  163 

a  fixed  portion  of  the  products  for  their  sustenance 
and  wages. 

On  account  of  their  greater  isolation  from  the  other 
Hellenes,  their  sense  of  a  wider  patriotism  was  but 
imperfectly  developed.  When  the  Persian  army  of 
Xerxes  came  into  Greece,  the  Thessal  lords  took  sides 
with  the  invader  against  their  Hellenic  kinsmen  and 
fellow-countrymen.  Their  conduct  was  partially  ex- 
cused by  the  fact  that  the  other  Greeks  did  not  take 
proper  measures  to  defend  the  pass  of  Tempe  against 
Xerxes.  The  concern  of  the  Peloponnesians  and 
Athenians  was  directed  more  to  the  southern  portions 
of  Greece,  where  their  own  homes  and  firesides  were. 
For  a  short  time  indeed  a  detachment  from  the  com- 
mon army  of  defense  had  occupied  Tempe,  but  retired 
before  Xerxes  reached  it.  But  even  after  their  country 
was  thus  laid  open  to  the  invader's  mercy,  not  all  of 
the  Thessalians  embraced  the  cause  of  the  invader, 
who  apparently  was  destined  to  be  a  conqueror.  The 
opulent  lords  and  the  aristocrats  "medized,"  but  the 
other  free  inhabitants  of  democratic  sentiments  were 
in  favor  of  resistance. 

In  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  Philip  of 
Makedon  came  seeking  conquests  in  Greece.  Among 
the  earliest  to  fall  under  his  power  were  the  Thes- 
salians. Here  he  gained  his  first  foothold  within 
Greece  proper.  Here  he  appointed  over  the  various 
cities  men  who  were  in  favor  of  his  projects,  and  from 
here  he  in  time  became  master  of  all  the  country. 

When  the  great  strife  between  Latinism  and  Hellen- 
ism began,  Thessaly  was  the  scene  of  a  good  part  of 
the  struggle.  At  least  one  great  battle  was  fought 


164  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

here,  in  which  the  Roman  consul  Flamininus  routed 
Philip  the  Fifth,  the  king  of  Makedon,  who  had  threat- 
ened to  aid  Hannibal  against  the  Romans.  The  battle 
took  place  near  the  hills  called  Kynos  Kephalse.  After 
this  victory  the  Romans  allowed  the  Thessalians  to 
remain  for  a  time  autonomous  under  the  government 
of  native  military  rulers.  Again,  in  the  formidable 
struggle  between  Caesar  and  Pompey  for  the  mastery 
of  the  Roman  empire  it  was  in  Thessaly,  near  Phar- 
salos,  that  the  decisive  battle  was  fought,  the  battle 
that  went  so  far  to  decide  whether  the  imperial  republic 
was  to  be  democratic  or  monarchical.  Caesar  won,  and 
from  that  day  "Csesarism"  was  characteristic  of  all 
things  Roman. 

Thessaly  has  in  all  its  long  history  never  enjoyed 
free  life  for  any  length  of  time.  Oppressors  have 
always  been  among  the  Thessals,  or  at  least  near 
enough  to  disturb  them.  We  have  seen  that  in  pre- 
historic times  tribe  after  tribe  invaded  this  country, 
driving  out  or  suppressing  the  previous  owners.  Then 
came  the  tyrannical  lords  who  flourished  here  when  the 
rest  of  Greece  was  in  the  classical  period  of  her  free- 
dom. Then  came  Philip's  menials,  and  later  the 
Roman  officials.  In  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  governed 
from  Byzantion.  In  these  Byzantiac  times  streams  of 
plunderers  and  invaders  swept  over  and  through  these 
plains.  Alaric  and  his  Gothic  hordes  raided  the  entire 
country  in  396.  Not  quite  a  hundred  years  later 
Theodoric,  another  leader  of  Goths,  again  plundered 
the  Thessals.  Bulgarians  are  first  reported  to  have  rav- 
aged these  regions  as  far  south  as  Thermopylae  in  the 
year  517.  Slavic  tribes  in  577  spread  terrible  desola- 


THE  THESSALIC  PLAIN  165 

tion  over  all  this  land.  Five  hundred  years  subse- 
quently, the  daring  Normans,  who  had  mastered 
Southern  Italy,  crossed  the  Pindos  Mountains  from 
Dyrrachion,  entered  the  plain  of  Thessaly,  and  laid 
siege  to  Larisa.  But  after  a  siege  of  six  months  the 
emperor  of  Byzantion  came  to  the  assistance  of  the 
town,  and  Boemund  was  forced  to  retire  with  his 
Norman  knights.  It  must  have  been  a  well-fortified 
city  and  its  inhabitants  must  have  been  remarkably 
valorous  to  have  withstood  the  impetuous  Normans  so 
long. 

Thessaly  seems  to  have  been  able  quickly  to  recover 
in  part  from  the  effects  of  each  dread  invasion.  Ed- 
risi,  an  Arabian  geographer,  describes  the  country 
as  it  was  in  the  eleventh  century.  Trikka  was  then  a 
rich  city  in  the  midst  of  vineyards;  Larisa  was  an 
opulent  town,  and  an  important  mart  for  figs  and 
grapes  and  wheat.  Almyros  was  a  frequented  seaport. 

Of  the  successive  invaders  that  came  into  these 
plains  during  the  last  two  thousand  years,  most  were 
merely  plunderers,  not  colonizers.  They  therefore 
usually  retired  after  exhausting  the  search  for  portable 
property.  Some,  however,  remained.  There  are  a  few 
settlements  of  Albanians.  In  the  hill  country  west  and 
south  there  are  many  villages  where  the  Vlachic 
language  prevails  among  the  women,  showing  that 
Vlachs  settled  in  these  pasture  regions  in  considerable 
numbers.  They  were  nomadic  shepherds  originally, 
and  a  good  portion  of  them  are  even  yet  of  this  ilk. 
They  were  so  numerous  here  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  even  afterward,  that  Thessaly  was  in  those  days 
often  called  Great  Vlachia.  These  Vlachs  are  possibly 


166  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

akin  to  the  Wallachians  of  Roumania.  But  there  is 
not  the  slightest  proof  that  they  came  into  the  Pindos 
and  Othrys  from  the  Danubian  provinces.  Where  their 
original  home  was  we  do  not  know.  Nor  do  we  know 
why  they  speak  a  Latin  tongue.  Whether  they  are  of 
Greek  descent  or  not  has  not  yet  been  ascertained. 
Their  ethnic  origin  is  as  much  open  to  dispute  as  is 
that  of  the  Roumanians  themselves. 

Fifty  or  sixty  years  before  the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople, the  land  of  Thessaly  had  already  been  seized  by 
Moslem  invaders,  who  portioned  it  out  among  them- 
selves. These  Thessalian  Moslems  are  thought  to  have 
come  chiefly  from  the  province  of  Ikonion  in  Asia. 
Hence  they  are  called  Koniarids,  even  to  the  present 
day.  The  Christian  inhabitants  of  the  fields  and  level 
parts  of  Thessaly  suffered  much  from  the  domination 
of  the  Koniarids.  These  Christians  are  known  by  the 
name  of  "Karagounids."  The  Karagounid  is  not  a 
lovable  specimen  of  mankind.  He  is  filthy  in  appear- 
ance, lazy,  and  of  course  uneducated.  Bad  masters 
have  bad  slaves.  This  was  the  last  of  the  Greek  prov- 
inces to  be  liberated.  Only  since  1881  has  the  darkness 
of  Moslemism  been  lifted  from  round  the  Karagounids. 
Progress  has  begun  and  will  continue. 


IN  ARKADIA 

In  the  middle  of  the  Peloponnesos,  which  consti- 
tutes the  southern  half  of  Greece,  is  the  wonderland  of 
Arkadia.  It  is  a  region  of  wild  and  natural  grandeur. 
Its  physical  attractions  have  been  ensouled  by  the 
hauntings  and  enchantings  of  long  ages  of  mankind. 
Its  rocks  and  rivers  and  valleys  teem  with  myth  and 
history.  And  yet  Arkadia  is  practically  an  unknown 
country. 

While  Greece  attracts  every  year  numberless  cara- 
vans of  highly  intelligent  visitors,  exceedingly  few  are 
those  who  rebel  against  blind  obedience  to  the  travel- 
ing agents  and  the  ciceroni,  and  direct  their  course 
away  from  the  old  ruts  of  common  travel  into  such 
isolated  and  unpopularized  localities  as  are  these  hidden 
retreats  of  ancient  Arkadia.  This  is  perhaps  fortunate 
enough.  For  a  profitable  trip  hither,  even  from  so  near 
a  starting-point  as  Athens,  cannot  be  lightly  planned, 
if  the  traveler  wishes  to  be  secure  against  various  un- 
pleasant annoyances.  To  the  stranger  who  plunges 
into  these  recesses  unprepared,  the  trip  may  prove  to 
be  as  troublesome  as  it  would  have  been  incomparably 
delightful  under  the  contrary  circumstances.  Arkadia 
demands  from  its  guests  special  preparation  and  special 
tastes.  The  typical  travelers  who  set  out  from  Athens 
to  visit  predetermined  spots  in  the  interior  of  the 
Peloponnesos,  after  seeing  the  oft-praised  tombs  and 
walls  of  Mykenae  and  Tiryns  in  the  plains  east  of 
Arkadia,  are  then  transferred  across  Arkadia  through 

167 


i68  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  most  unattractive  and  least  historic  part,  into  the 
plains  of  Elis,  west  of  the  Arkadian  plateau,  to  see  the 
ruined  Altis  and  the  masterpieces  of  art  at  ancient 
Olympia.  Lack  of  ready-made  conveniences,  primitive 
methods  of  life  and  travel,  and  a  certain  insecurity  of 
life  and  property,  render  Arkadia  pleasantly  accessible 
only  to  the  energetic  tourist  who  is  not  content  with 
having  the  attractions  of  the  country  he  visits  marked 
out  for  him  and  made  of  easy  reach,  but  desires  the 
exciting  pleasure  of  discovering  them  for  himself  and 
the  exhilarating  consciousness  that  they  cannot  be  seen 
without  unusual  risk.  But  as  tourists  of  this  caliber 
are  not  frequent  here,  Arkadia  is  accordingly  enjoyed 
almost  exclusively  by  the  occasional  scholars  who, 
urged  by  a  sense  of  duty,  visit  it  as  specialists  in  Hel- 
lenic history  and  mythic  lore,  or  who  wish  to  see  its 
remains  of  ancient  art. 

Arkadia,  as  a  country  of  rare  and  noble  natural 
scenery,  can  claim  first  attention  among  the  attractive 
places  of  Europe;  but  as  a  rule,  natural  scenery 
does  not  sympathetically  make  us  thoroughly  to 
feel  its  beauty  or  its  greatness  except  when  asso- 
ciated in  our  imagination  with  the  life  and  story  of 
man,  and  surrounded  with  tales  of  past  strife  or  glory 
and  sorrow.  Fortunately  the  hills  and  dales  of  Ar- 
kadia teem  with  reminiscences  of  all  kinds  of  lore;  and 
local  history,  tales  of  adventure  in  bloody  deeds  or 
heroic  acts,  graceful  myths  and  ghastly  superstitions, 
episodes  of  frenzied  love  or  consoling  religion,  as  pre- 
served in  the  songs  of  the  untamed  mountaineers  and 
the  folk-tales  of  the  evening  fireside,  are  localized  in 
the  valleys  and  crags  and  ruined  abbeys  and  castles. 


IN  ARKADIA  169 

The  province  of  Arkadia  is  an  extensive  and  ele- 
vated plateau  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesos,  with  steep  and  in  many  places  insurmountable 
sides.  Only  on  the  west  and  south  declivities  is  access 
somewhat  easy  into  this  tableland  from  several  points. 
On  these  two  sides  the  beds  of  mountain  streams,  and 
other  pathways  cut  out  by  nature,  are  more  frequent. 
And  through  these  passes  communication  is  possible 
with  the  plains  below.  From  the  east  side  there  are 
only  four  entrances  known  and  frequented  since  classic 
times  down  to  the  present  day.  Of  these,  three  are 
simply  rugged  mule-paths.  The  fourth  one,  however, 
which  leads  up  from  Argos  to  near  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Tegea,  is  so  easy  of  access  that  it  has 
been  found  possible  to  build  a  railroad  through  it. 
This  railroad  runs  across  southern  Arkadia,  touching 
at  the  city  of  Tripolis  and  the  town  of  Megalopolis, 
and  thence  continues  on  to  Messenia. 

From  the  north  side  Arkadia  was  also  accessible  in 
antiquity  on  foot  or  even  by  mountain  horses.  But  a 
few  years  ago  a  great  innovation  was  made  here  also. 
The  Greek  government,  in  order  to  be  able  quickly  to 
bring  the  sturdy  inhabitants  of  Arkadia  down  into  the 
plains  in  case  of  war,  built  a  railroad  twelve  miles  long, 
which  leads  up  into  the  northern  and  lower  part  of 
Arkadia,  starting  directly  from  the  Korinthiac  Gulf, 
and  terminating  at  Kalabryta.  This  railroad  is  of 
the  toothed  kind,  necessarily,  on  account  of  the  steep- 
ness of  the  ascent;  for  in  this  distance  of  twelve  miles, 
it  makes  an  ascent  of  nearly  twenty-two  hundred  feet. 
By  these  two  railroads,  both  of  which  have  direct 
communication  with  Athens  and  Patrae,  the  most  fre- 


170  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

quented  centers  of  travel  in  Greece,  it  is  easy  enough 
to  reach  the  outskirts  of  the  wild  lands  of  Arkadia. 
But  it  is  only  after  getting  this  far  that  difficulties 
begin. 

This  high  plateau  of  Arkadia  forms  a  kind  of 
elevated  square  in  the  middle  of  the  peninsula,  or 
island  rather,  of  the  Peloponnesos.  At  each  of  its  four 
corners  there  stands  out  a  majestic  group  of  mountain 
tops,  which  are  quite  high  even  above  the  general  level 
of  the  Arkadian  tableland,  but  which  rise  like  monu- 
ments of  God  grandly  above  the  surrounding  belt  of 
plains  and  the  sea  beyond. 

Here  it  is  customary  to  measure  distances  by  the 
number  of  hours  or  days  required  to  cover  them  in 
traveling.  By  this  standard  we  may  convey  a  notion 
of  the  extent  of  Arkadia  by  saying  that  one  could  ride 
through  it  from  north  to  south  on  a  mountain  horse, 
which  of  course  never  quickens  itself  into  a  trot,  in 
two  or  three  days  of  at  least  twelve  hours  each,  accord- 
ing to  the  route  selected ;  and  a  similar  trip  across  the 
plateau  from  east  to  west  could  be  made  in  one  day 
of  from  fifteen  to  eighteen  hours'  duration.  This 
means  continuous  riding,  and  by  the  valley-routes. 

The  plains  that  surround  Arkadia  and  separate  it 
from  the  sea  are,  on  an  average,  about  twenty  miles 
wide.  On  clear  mornings  from  the  tops  of  the  highest 
peaks  on  the  plateau,  nearly  all  of  Arkadia  itself  is 
visible,  together  with  good  portions  of  the  wide  fringe 
of  vine-clad  plains,  beyond  which  can  be  seen,  reaching 
off  as  if  into  measureless  space,  the  blue  waters  of 
various  portions  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Within  its  four  corners  this  great  interior  tableland 


IN  ARKADIA  171 

is  by  no  means  a  level  plateau.  It  has  mountains  of 
its  own,  and  corresponding,  valleys.  Its  mountains  do 
not  rise  to  the  tall  height  of  the  border  ones,  but  yet 
they  are  sublime  enough;  and  its  valleys  are  not  ex- 
tensive, like  the  rich  plains  below,  but  for  that  very 
reason  are  the  more  picturesque.  In  the  middle  of 
the  north  boundary  of  Arkadia,  between  the  two 
corner-groups  of  Kyllene  to  the  east  and  Erymanthos 
to  the  west,  rise  the  mountains  of  Aroania,  about  seven 
thousand  feet  high.  It  may  be  remarked  in  passing 
that  this  height  is  so  much  the  grander  because  the 
tops  of  the  mountains  are  only  about  thirteen  miles 
distant  by  air  line  from  the  edge  of  the  sea,  in  the  gulf 
of  Korinth.  From  these  Aroanian  mountains  there 
extends  southward  over  the  tableland  a  long  and  high 
chain,  whose  highest  point  within  Arkadia  is  about 
five  thousand  seven  hundred  feet.  This  central  chain 
divides  the  entire  plateau  into  eastern  and  western 
Arkadia.  And  from  this  central  chain  lower  moun- 
tains run  out  in  both  directions,  thus  entirely  covering 
the  country  with  low  mountains  and  hills.  Naturally 
among  these  closely  set  mountains  and  hills  the  valleys 
are  numberless.  Nearly  all  of  them  are  small,  with 
the  exception  of  that  of  Mantineia  and  Tegea  north  and 
south  of  the  modern  city  of  Tripolis,  and  the  larger 
one  around  the  town  of  Megalopolis.  Thus  the  great 
high  plateau  is  all  an  interchanging  variation  of  lofty 
mountain  tops  and  corresponding  deep  and  narrow 
valleys. 

The  western  part  of  Arkadia  is  well  drained  by 
mountain  torrents  that  quickly  carry  off  the  waters  of 
rain  and  snow  directly  into  the  Alpheios,  which  is  the 


172  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

principal  river  of  the  Peloponnesos,  or  into  its  tribu- 
tary, the  beautiful  Ladon.  But  east  of  the  central  moun- 
tains a  curious  phenomenon  is  of  frequent  occurrence. 
Many  of  the  valleys  here  have  no  outlet  overground, 
although  great  quantities  of  water  surge  down  into 
them.  But  in  nearly  every  one  of  these  closed  valleys 
there  is  a  natural  opening  in  the  earth,  into  which  the 
water  runs,  and  thus  is  carried  off  through  under- 
ground passages  to  the  plains  below,  where  it  reappears 
in  springs  and  sources  of  small  rivers.  One  such  outlet 
surges  up  as  fresh  water  out  in  the  sea,  near  Argos. 
These  strange  chasms,  called  "katabothra"  by  the 
natives,  are  a  great  blessing  to  the  people  of  the  valleys. 
But  on  account  of  the  quantities  of  mud  and  wood  and 
weeds  which  this  water  carries  into  the  "katabothra" 
a  stoppage  of  the  chasms  sometimes  occurs,  and  then 
the  water  collects  and  stands  in  the  valley,  forming  a 
mountain  lake.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  such 
water,  being  almost  stagnant,  becomes  a  source  of 
fevers  and  sickness  to  the  villagers  who  nestle  on  the 
slopes  round  about.  Accordingly  portions  of  Arkadia 
are  justly  regarded  as  unhealthful. 

Another  cause  that  frequently  renders  the  villages 
more  unhealthful  is  that  often  they  are  built  on  the 
shady  side  of  the  mountains,  and  thus  do  not  enjoy 
sufficient  direct  sunlight.  Still  even  these  ill-famed  dis- 
tricts are  not  notably  insalubrious.  And  when  the  na- 
tives speak  of  them  as  being  such,  they  mean  that  these 
regions  are  unhealthful  as  compared  with  the  other 
parts  of  Arkadia.  For  if  we,  in  our  northern  countries, 
were  condemned  to  live  with  the  other  surroundings  of 
dirt  and  privation  which  these  neighbors  of  the  closed 


IN  ARKADIA  173 

"katabothra"  enjoy,  perhaps  we  would  very  soon  be- 
come an   extinct   people.      Excepting  these  partially 
infected  regions,  the  climate  of  Arkadia  is  extremely 
healthful  and  invigorating.   In  summer  a  certain  fresh 
and  at  times  even  raw  but  not  unpleasant  air  is  continu- 
ally in  motion.    It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  associate  the 
idea  of  a  northern  winter  with  our  notion  of  what  the 
climate  of  Greece  is.     This  is  because  literature  and 
travel  have  made  us  acquainted  with  the  sunny  climate 
of  Attika  and  other  seaside  portions  of  Greece,  but 
have  omitted  to  impress  us  with  the  fact  that  in  the 
interior  of  the  country,  and  in  mountainous  districts, 
the  climate  may  be  very  different.    Winter  up  here  is 
long  and  severe;  and  while  in  the  surrounding  plains 
along  the  sea,  the  orange  trees  bloom,  and  the  inhab- 
itants can  sit  in  the  open  air  enjoying  the  southern  sun 
in  December  and   January  and   February,   on  these 
heights  within  easy  sight  of  the  cozy  plains  below,  the 
natives  wrap  themselves  in  their  woolen  capotes  or 
huddle  round  their  primeval  hearths,  to  keep  warm. 
But  in  summer  they  have  their  turn  at  comfort,  for 
while  the  men  of  the  plains  swelter  in  almost  unen- 
durable heat,  up  here,  with  the  exception  of  one  or 
two  hours  at  midday,  the  thermometer  rests  at  about 
seventy-five  degrees. 

The  sea  washes  against  every  side  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesos.  But  the  belt  of  plain  that  engirdles  Arkadia  has 
always  prevented  the  Arkadians  from  becoming  a  mari- 
time people.  In  this  respect  they  were  different  from 
all  the  other  important  tribes  of  the  Greeks.  Homer 
tells  us  that  in  the  eleventh  century  before  Christ  they 
went  indeed  to  Asia  Minor  along  with  the  other 


174  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Peloponnesians  to  fight  in  the  common  cause  of  the 
Hellenes  against  the  Trojans.  But  they  were  the  only 
tribe  that  possessed  no  ships  of  their  own,  and  the 
commander-in-chief,  Agamemnon,  had  to  furnish  ves- 
sels to  transport  them  across  the  ^Egean. 

This  inland  character  of  Arkadia  caused  the  loss  of 
its  ancient  name  in  the  Middle  Ages.  For  we  find  that 
when  Arkadia,  with  nearly  all  of  the  Peloponnesos, 
was  under  the  sway  of  the  French  Crusaders  and  their 
heirs,  the  name  in  common  use  was  not  "Arkadia," 
but  "Mesarea,"  or  "The  Midlands."  That  its  ancient 
name  should  have  disappeared  and  have  been  replaced 
by  one  that  simply  describes  the  locality  of  the  plateau, 
is  not  so  very  remarkable;  for  long  before  the  coming 
of  the  Franks,  many  of  the  old  Greek  names  had  en- 
tirely disappeared  from  the  mouths  and  the  memory 
of  the  people,  giving  place  to  new  ones.  Many  of  these 
new  names  were  not  of  Hellenic  but  of  Slavonic  origin. 

This  presence  of  Slavonic  place-names  is  one  of 
the  mysteries  of  Arkadian  and  mediaeval  Greek  history 
in  general.  For  when  the  French  under  Champlitte 
and  Villeharduin  came  here  in  the  year  1205,  shortly 
after  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Europeans 
of  the  Fourth  Crusade,  they  found  in  Arkadia  a  popu- 
lation which  in  all  respects  seemed  to  be  Greek,  speak- 
ing a  Hellenic  dialect  and  having  none  but  Greek 
traditions.  And  yet  many  of  the  names  of  places  were, 
and  still  continue  to  be,  in  spite  of  the  tendency  to 
Hellenize  them,  Slavonic. 

The  Franks,  who  came  here  as  stray  Crusaders,  held 
most  of  the  Peloponnesos,  which  then  was  called  the 
"Morea" — a  name  which  thus  has  made  its  way  into 


IN  ARKADIA  175 

western  literature — for  upward  of  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years.  For  more  than  one  hundred  years, 
Arkadia  was  a  part  of  this  "Principality  of  Achaia," 
as  the  Prankish  possessions  in  the  Morea  were  called. 
Under  the  control  of  these  vigorous  Westerners  the 
Peloponnesos,  which  previously  had  suffered  indescrib- 
ably from  repeated  invasions  and  pillagings,  began  to 
revive.  Arkadia  especially  began  to  flourish,  and  this 
in  spite  of  an  unbroken  series  of  little  wars,  either  be- 
tween rival  French  barons  who  lived  in  their  strong- 
holds on  the  hilltops,  or  between  the  barons  and  their 
continually  rebellious  subjects,  or  against  foes  from 
without.  Throughout  the  land  the  French  built  forts 
and  wall-protected  towns;  in  prominent  and  im- 
pregnable positions  they  erected  castles  and  watch- 
towers  to  preserve  their  own  and  the  public  safety. 
In  their  castles  the  French  princes  and  barons  lived, 
surrounded  by  knights  and  vassals  of  Hellenic  as  well 
as  of  western  blood,  in  a  romantic  and  savage  grandeur 
that  equaled  the  chivalric  life  of  their  kinsmen  in 
Europe.  But  they  have  passed  away.  The  frowning 
ruins  of  their  castles  still  crown  the  tops  of  hills  and 
crags.  Some  of  their  fortresses,  like  that  of  Karytaena, 
were  so  strong,  and  so  well  built,  that  five  hundred 
years  later  they  were  useful  in  the  long  wars  between 
the  Moslems  and  Christians  of  Greece  at  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century.  And  although  the  spears  of 
the  iron  knights  no  longer  glitter  from  these  mediaeval 
castles,  they  are  not  any  the  less  a  source  of  fear  to  the 
Arkadian  peasant.  For  many  of  them  have  been  re- 
peopled  by  another  set  of  beings,  more  dangerous  even 
than  the  mailed  soldiers — by  cobolds  and  nereids  and 


176  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

other  spiteful  supernatural  spirits  that  delight  in  vexing 
mankind.  These  ruins  are  avoided  in  time  of  night. 
In  the  folklore  of  the  people,  as  preserved  around  their 
winter  firesides  in  story  and  song,  there  is  much  that 
recalls  the  domination  of  the  Franks ;  and  tales  relating 
to  fair  daughters  of  princes  and  daring  rescues  by 
knights,  as  told  in  connection  with  these  crumbling 
old  ruins,  are  often  a  remnant  of  the  songs  of  ad- 
venture and  chivalry  that  were  sung  in  these  once 
splendid  halls  by  the  world-famed  troubadours  of  the 
strangers. 

Prior  to  the  coming  of  the  Franks  the  country  had 
relapsed  into  a  low  stage  of  civilization.  It  is  easy  to 
understand  that  to  reach  such  a  stage  on  a  downward 
course  is  more  sad  and  hopeless  than  to  reach  it  ascend- 
ing from  savagery.  Life  in  Arkadia  had  again  become 
a  very  simple  affair,  compared  with  that  of  developed 
civilization.  All  were  either  shepherds  or  peasants. 
Of  course,  it  may  be  true  that  this  is  the  natural  life 
for  Arkadians;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  note  that 
among  peasants  and  shepherds  there  may  be  an  im- 
mensely long  scale  of  degrees  of  culture  and  intelli- 
gence. In  all  Arkadia  there  was  but  one  school,  as 
far  as  we  know,  and  that  was  a  monastic  institution 
founded  in  the  tenth  century  near  the  charming  town 
of  Demetsana,  by  a  citizen  of  that  place  who  had  gone 
to  Constantinople  and  risen  high  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Patriarch  Polyevktos  and  the  emperor  Nikephoros 
Phokas.  This  monastery  still  exists,  built  in  the  cliffs 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  river  Lousios ;  but  its  property 
has  been  confiscated,  its  library  has  been  mostly  de- 
stroyed, and  its  beautiful  Byzantine  domed  church  is 


IN  ARKADIA  177 

ready  to  fall  into  decay.  The  only  institutions  of  civili- 
zation in  those  days  were  the  churches  and  monasteries, 
both  of  which  were  numerous;  and  it  is  probable  that 
in  most  of  the  monasteries  provision  was  continually 
made  to  have  a  few  men  that  were  capable  of  reading 
and  writing.  Accordingly,  in  these  religious  retreats 
some  spark  of  book  knowledge  was  certainly  kept  alive. 

Although  no  other  foreigners  ever  exercised  so  long 
a  sway  over  the  Arkadians  as  did  the  Franks,  with  the 
exception  of  their  successors,  the  Moslems,  yet  when 
the  Prankish  domination  came  to  an  end,  what  had 
happened  with  all  previous  strangers  happened  again — 
although  they  left  many  outward  marks  and  monu- 
ments of  their  dominion  here,  they  had  almost  no  in- 
fluence whatever  on  the  people  as  a  race.  As  to  the 
French,  after  their  power  in  Greece  was  destroyed, 
chiefly  by  other  Westerners  and  especially  by  the 
Catalans  of  Spain,  most  of  them  returned  to  Europe. 
Those  who  remained  did  so  because  they  had  inter- 
married with  natives,  as  was  frequently  the  case  in 
Arkadia.  These,  adopting  the  religion  and  mode  of 
life  of  the  Arkadians,  became  themselves  out-and-out 
natives.  And  only  their  names,  preserved  even  to  this 
day  here  and  there,  betray  the  Gallic  origin  of  their 
wild  offspring. 

Of  all  the  Greeks,  the  ancient  Arkadians  boasted  to 
be  the  oldest.  Their  traditions  declared  them  to  have 
existed  before  the  moon  was  made.  They  claimed  that 
they  were  the  first  of  men  to  come  together  and  build 
a  city,  and  that  this  city  was  Lykosoura.  That  Lyko- 
soura  was  a  very  old  and  revered  city  is  evident.  It  is 
today  sacred  to  every  worshiper  of  the  beautiful  in  art, 


178  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

because  of  the  wonderful  pieces  of  sculpture  unearthed 
there  a  few  years  ago.  These  treasures,  representing 
the  acme  of  ancient  Greek  art,  are  now  kept  at  Athens 
in  the  National  Museum.  At  Lykosoura,  in  antiquity, 
Demeter,  the  mild  earth-goddess,  and  her  mysterious 
daughter,  Kore,  were  especially  worshiped.  The  ruins 
of  Lykosoura  may  still  be  located,  in  virtue  of  the 
discoveries  referred  to,  on  the  slope  of  Mount  Lykseon, 
which  is  associated  with  the  oldest  stories  and  theogony 
of  Arkadia.  On  this  mountain  Zevs  was  born,  the  chief 
of  the  deities  that  succeeded  to  the  old  Pelasgian 
dynasty  of  Kronos,  and  here  it  was  that  Hagno  and 
her  associate  nymphs  took  care  of  him  as  an  infant. 
On  the  top  of  Lykseon  there  was  a  shrine  sacred  to 
Zevs,  which  no  mortal  ever  desired  to  enter.  For 
whatever  living  creature  passed  within  it  lost  its 
shadow  therein  and  was  doomed  to  die  within  a  year. 
But  this  holy  mountain  possesses  a  more  tangible  fame, 
for  even  in  the  days  of  the  periegete  Pavsanias,  when 
it  was  not  customary  to  introduce  into  literature  de- 
scriptions of  natural  scenery,  this  traveler  makes  an 
exception  in  his  visit  to  Lykaeon,  and  records  the  vast- 
ness  and  beauty  of  the  view  from  its  summit.  Lykaeon 
is,  in  fact,  one  of  those  points  from  which  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  Peloponnesos  can  be  seen  rolling  itself  out 
in  all  directions.  And  the  roads  that  lead  up  to  Lykaeon 
and  Lykosoura  from  the  town  of  Megalopolis,  founded 
by  Epameinondas  the  Theban  as  a  bulwark  against 
inroads  from  Sparta,  pass  along  wild  and  interesting 
mountain  slopes. 

As  being  an  early  and  revered  center  of  religion  and 
of  other  civilization,  Mount  Lykaeon  remained  impor- 


IN  ARKADIA  179 

tant  even  in  historic  times.  In  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ,  a  beautiful  silver  coin,  with  a  head  of  Zevs  on 
it,  was  minted  here  at  Lykosoura,  to  be  used  as  the 
common  monetary  unit  of  such  cities  as,  loosely  leagued 
together,  formed  what  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Arkadian  Confederacy.  These  early  coins,  as  well  as 
different  later  ones,  that  likewise  bear  the  head  of  Zevs, 
are  still  found  in  the  soil  and  in  the  beds  of  the  moun- 
tain torrents  of  Arkadia,  and  thus  find  their  way  into 
the  numismatical  collections  of  Athens  and  Europe. 

Not  only  the  sublime  Zevs,  but  also  other  Arkadian 
deities  had  shrines  at  or  near  Lykosoura.  The  high 
Nomian  Mountains  that  run  toward  the  west  from 
Lykseon  were  favorite  haunts  of  the  shepherd  god 
Pan,  a  deity  that  naturally  plays  an  important  role  in 
the  mythology  of  this  land  of  shepherds  and  peasants. 

The  Arkadians  of  old  were  lovers  of  music,  and 
enjoyed  widespread  fame  for  their  skill  therein.  The 
music  of  the  flute,  the  choice  instrument  of  their  be- 
loved Pan,  and  of  the  harp,  were  dear  to  every  Arka- 
dian rustic.  He  thought,  at  times,  that  he  could  hear 
the  soft  distant  notes  of  the  flute  of  Pan,  as  the  god 
strolled  along  the  cool  streams,  or  sat  under  the  plane 
trees  in  the  Arkadian  groves.  And  on  the  slopes  of  high 
Kyllene,  which  in  the  northeast  corner  of  Arkadia  out- 
tops  even  the  neighboring  peaks  of  Aroania,  the  twang- 
ing of  the  strings  of  the  harp  could  be  heard,  for  here 
it  was  that  Hermes  found  the  huge  tortoise,  whose 
shell  he  took,  and  by  stretching  cords  across  it,  made 
the  first  stringed  instrument  of  this  kind.  These  Arka- 
dian music  myths  are  interesting  when  coupled  with  the 
historic  fact  that  the  Arkadians  were  really  devotees 


i8o  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

of  music,  in  its  simpler  forms.  According  to  the 
testimony  of  the  reliable  Polybios,  himself  a  native  of 
Megalopolis,  the  Arkadians  thought  it  no  great  loss 
to  be  ignorant  of  the  other  branches  of  learning,  but 
regarded  it  as  a  disgrace  to  have  no  skill  in  music. 
On  the  great  feast  days,  the  young  men  took  active 
part  in  representing  their  national  religious  dramas  by 
singing  the  choral  odes  and  by  dancing  in  the  orchestra 
round  the  altar  of  Dionysos.  To  this  love  of  music 
did  Polybios  attribute  the  noble  and  good  charac- 
teristics of  the  ancient  Arkadians. 

Outside  of  their  skill  in  music,  the  Arkadians  had 
no  enviable  fame  in  the  intellectual  line.  They  were 
even  proverbially  regarded  as  a  dull  people,  and  it  be- 
came common  for  the  later  Greek  comic  dramatists  to 
describe  country  simpletons  by  the  phrase  "blastema 
Arkadikon,"  or  "Arkadian  saplings."  And  since  these 
comedians  of  the  middle  period  were  followed  in  this 
detail,  as  in  every  other,  by  their  Latin  imitators,  the 
term  "arcadius  juvenis,"  applied  to  some  awkward 
clown,  may  often  have  brought  roars  of  hilarious 
laughter  from  the  audiences  of  the  old  open-air  theaters 
of  Italy. 

But  for  all  that  the  Arkadians  had  their  scholars, 
and  men  of  eminent  qualities  in  other  ranks  of  life. 
Only  in  dramatic  literature,  in  architecture,  and  in 
sculpture  do  we  find  a  dearth  of  native  Arkadian  talent. 
Yet  even  in  these  lines  they  were  not  entirely  unpro- 
ductive. Pavsanias  mentions  a  noteworthy  monument 
which  he  saw  in  the  precincts  of  the  Delphian  Apollon, 
representing  the  Arkadian  hero  Azan  Arkas,  with  his 
brothers  and  relations,  dedicated  at  Delphi  by  the  men 


IN  ARKADIA  181 

of  Tegea,  and  made  by  the  native  Arkadian  sculptor 
Samolis.  Among  their  scholars  the  most  eminent  was 
Polybios,  one  of  the  noblest  and  most  philosophical  of 
the  long  series  of  writers  of  Greek  history,  son  of  one 
of  the  last  generals  that  fought  for  the  autonomy  of 
Greece.  This  historian  is  he  who  as  a  boy  accompanied 
his  father  Lykortas  to  Messenia  and  brought  back  to 
Megalopolis  the  ashes  of  the  murdered  Philopcemen, 
the  great  leader  whose  skill  and  patriotism  won  for 
him  in  history  the  title  of  "the  last  of  the  Greeks." 
And  in  this  sorrowful  but  sublime  procession,  with  its 
character  of  eternity,  like  the  reliefs  on  some  old 
funereal  marble,  it  was  the  young  Polybios  who  carried 
the  urn  with  the  dust  of  Philopoemen  in  it. 

The  primitive  inhabitants  of  Arkadia  are  said  to 
-have  been  Pelasgians.  But  who  the  Pelasgians  were  is 
still  a  mystery.  They  may  have  been  not  one  people, 
but  a  conglomeration  of  peoples  of  various  origin.  In 
other  parts  of  Greece  these  Pelasgians  retired  or  suc- 
cumbed before  the  influx  of  the  newer  tribes,  that  are 
thought  to  have  been  the  ancestors  of  most  of  the 
historic  Greeks.  But  here  in  Arkadia  the  Pelasgians 
were  more  firmly  established,  and  continued  to  exist  in 
these  mountain  fastnesses  down  to  the  beginning  of 
historic  times,  unmixed  with  other  Greeks. 

The  mythical  progenitor  of  this  Pelasgian  people, 
Pelasgos,  was,  by  Arkadian  myth,  a  native  of  these 
mountains.  Story  holds  that  he  was  the  first  civilizer 
of  the  Arkadians.  He  taught  them  to  build  huts  for 
shelter,  instead  of  living  in  caves  or  in  the  open  air, 
and  to  wear  clothes  made  of  skins.  He  taught  them  to 
select  their  food  with  more  care  from  the  products  of 


182  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  earth,  and  introduced  the  habit  of  eating  nuts  from 
a  certain  kind  of  oak  tree.  From  this  latter  circum- 
stance the  Arkadians  became  known  in  literature  as 
"acorn-eaters."  This  special  kind  of  oak  tree  still 
flourishes  throughout  Arkadia,  and  in  places  consti- 
tutes beautiful  groves.  But  the  acorns  have  lost  their 
value  as  food,  and  now  are  gathered  before  becoming 
ripe  and  exported  to  Europe,  to  be  used  as  a  chemical 
in  the  tanning  of  leather. 

Besides  these  beautiful  groves  of  gnarled  oaks,  the 
trees  that  most  attract  attention  in  Arkadia  are  the 
extensive  pine  forests  that  cover  the  slopes  of  many  of 
the  mountains.  Unfortunately,  however,  although  the 
Arkadian  is  highly  capable  of  admiring  the  usefulness 
and  the  cooling  shade  of  a  tree  just  as  fully  as  though 
he  had  stepped  alive  out  of  the  pages  of  Theokritos, 
yet  he  has  no  mercy  for  the  trees  if  he  happens  to  be  a 
shepherd.  Then  the  sense  of  beauty  yields  to  the  spirit 
of  personal  gain.  For  the  forests,  especially  those  of 
pine,  prevent  the  growth  of  grass,  and  therefore  are 
often  ruthlessly  set  on  fire  and  burned  by  these  shep- 
herds, to  increase  the  extent  of  the  pasture  regions  on 
the  mountains. 

Besides  the  oaks  and  the  pines  there  are  to  be  seen 
everywhere  isolated  and  majestic  plane  trees,  which  are 
especially  numerous  along  the  streams  and  the  beds  of 
torrents  and  by  fountains.  Indeed,  along  one  stream, 
which  the  traveler  may  see  on  his  way  to  Lykosoura, 
there  grew  such  a  profusion  of  these  trees  in  antiquity 
that  the  locality  was  called  "Plataniston,"  or  "Plane- 
dell,"  and,  curiously  enough,  the  name  is  still  applicable 
to  that  beautiful  region  for  the  same  reason. 


IN  ARKADIA  183 

After  the  mythical  but  not  unreal  Pelasgos,  the 
next  great  benefactor  and  civilizer  of  the  Arkadians 
was  the  hero  from  whom  they  took  their  name,  as  the 
instructive  myth  asserts.  This  man  was  Azan  Arkas, 
who  taught  them  how  to  turn  the  wool  of  their  flocks 
into  garments  through  the  arts  of  spinning  and  weav- 
ing, and  how  to  grind  grain  and  bake  it  into  bread, 
instead  of  eating  vegetable  materials  raw.  Arkas  had 
learned  from  the  mystic  Neoptolemos  of  Attika  the 
cereal  art  of  sowing  wheat  and  making  bread. 

Another  interesting  story  from  these  remote  days 
is  that  Evander,  a  native  of  the  Arkadian  town  of 
Pallantion,  after  Arkadia  had  become  entirely  civilized, 
wandered  away  with  a  band  of  adventurous  followers, 
eleven  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  came  to  Italy, 
where  he  established  a  colony,  and  gave  to  his  new 
home  the  name  of  his  native  town,  Pallantion.  But 
in  time  the  name  changed  itself  by  distortion  into 
"Palation."  And  from  this  name  came  the  appellation 
of  the  "Palatine  Hill."  Evander's  colony  afterward 
grew,  by  accessions  from  the  surrounding  country, 
into  the  great  city  of  Rome.  Evander  brought  to 
Latium  a  knowledge  of  music,  as  was  proper  for  an 
Arkadian  to  do,  and  the  old  Greek  alphabet,  which  by 
slight  modifications  constituted  later  the  alphabet  of  the 
Romans.  Thus  from  Arkadia,  according  to  the  story, 
were  the  first  germs  of  civilization  introduced  into 
Italy. 

Although  the  land  of  Arkadia  constitutes  a  physical 
unit  when  contrasted  with  the  lands  lying  about  it,  it 
is,  nevertheless,  by  the  smaller  mountains  within  it, 
divided  into  a  number  of  vales,  which  by  their  nature 


184  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

constitute  so  many  immense  dens,  so  to  speak,  within 
which  the  rustic  inhabitants  lived  practically  in  inde- 
pendence of  each  other.  This  was  the  case  in  antiquity ; 
and  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  insecurity  of  life  in- 
creased, there  existed  almost  no  relations  whatsoever 
between  inhabitants  of  neighboring  valleys,  unless  we 
call  by  this  name  the  continual  little  wars  of  town 
against  town,  to  settle  disputes  regarding  the  right  to 
pasture  flocks  on  disputed  mountains.  Even  in  the  last 
century  it  is  a  known  fact  that  the  inhabitants  rarely, 
and  most  of  them  never,  visited  those  villages  distant 
only  by  a  walk  of  two  hours. 

The  gruff  Arkadian  was  not,  and  is  not,  a  man  to 
make  friends.  In  antiquity  the  Arkadians  usually  had 
no  allies  among  other  Greeks,  but  always  had  powerful 
and  merciless  enemies,  especially  the  jealous  Spartans. 
They  generally  knew  how  to  protect  themselves,  how- 
ever, and  were  among  the  last  of  the  Greeks  to  see 
their  independence  torn  away  from  them. 

After  Greece  became  a  Roman  province,  the  various 
Arkadian  towns  took  part  in  the  successive  civil  wars 
that  divided  the  Roman  empire.  And  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  single  city  of  Mantineia,  these  unlucky 
Arkadians,  out  of  a  spirit  of  stubborn  opposition  and 
praiseworthy  bravery,  always  took  sides  with  the 
weaker  party,  and  consequently  were  always  doomed 
to  be  left  with  the  vanquished.  Thus,  when  Sulla 
carried  war  into  Greece  in  order  to  drive  out  the  armies 
of  Mithridates,  the  Arkadians  stood  against  the  cruel 
Roman,  under  the  banners  of  the  Hellenized  Asiatic. 
Later,  in  the  war  between  Caesar  and  Pompey,  which 
ended  by  the  victory  of  Caesar  on  the  battlefield  of 


IN  ARKADIA  185 

Pharsalos,  they  fought  on  the  side  of  the  defeated 
Pompey.  And  when,  after  the  assassination  of  Caesar, 
Brutus  and  Cassius  tried  to  stand  against  the  forces  of 
Octavius  and  Anthony  in  the  passes  of  the  gold  mines 
near  Philippi,  the"  Arkadians,  spurred  on  with  the  prom- 
ise of  being  allowed  to  plunder  Sparta  if  victorious ' 
in  this  battle,  partook  of  the  results  of  the  hopeless 
defeat  of  Brutus  and  his  associate.  And  finally,  when 
Antony  turned  against  his  former  friend  Octavius,  and 
was  doomed  to  be  defeated  in  the  world-famed  naval 
battle  of  Aktion,  most  of  the  Arkadian  towns  had  taken 
sides  with  Antony — fated  to  be  with  the  vanquished. 

This  unbroken  series  of  ill-fortune,  together  with 
other  causes  of  decay,  brought  ruin  to  Arkadia.  The 
geographer  Strabon,  who,  early  in  the  first  century  of 
our  era,  traveled  over  a  good  portion  of  the  civilized 
world,  describes  other  parts  of  Greece  in  detail,  but 
avoided  going  to  Arkadia,  remarking  that  its  great 
cities  had  passed  away,  and  nothing  but  heaps  of  ruins 
marked  their  former  sites,  and  that  the  country  was 
desolate. 

Although  Strabon's  sorrowful  epitaph  over  the  dead 
cities  of  Arkadia  was  something  of  an  exaggeration, 
nevertheless  it  is  true  that  the  period  of  great  desola- 
tion had  begun.  This  was  increased  by  the  frequent 
inroads  of  later  invaders,  beginning  with  that  of  Alaric 
and  the  Goths  in  395  after  Christ,  and  by  the  destruc- 
tive assistance  of  earthquakes  and  plagues. 

After  the  departure  of  the  French,  the  betterment 
in  the  condition  of  affairs  introduced  by  them  again 
decayed  under  the  demoralizing  rule  of  the  Ottomans, 
which  lasted  down  to  the  beginning  of  the  last  century. 


186  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

But  a  certain  spirit  of  western  chivalry,  due  in  part  to 
this  Prankish  rule,  continued  to  thrive  from  that  time 
on  in  the  mountain  fastnesses.  Its  votaries  were  the 
celebrated  klephts,  or  mountain  refugees,  who  pre- 
ferred to  be  roving  outlaws  and  wild  adventurers  rather 
than  to  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  Crescent.  And  when, 
in  1821,  the  war-storm  of  freedom  burst  out,  it  was 
Arkadia  that  furnished  the  most  reliable  soldiers  of 
the  Peloponnesos,  and  the  greatest  leader  in  the  war, 
Kolokotrones. 

The  present  inhabitants  are  in  character  much  like 
the  ancient — hospitable,  as  are  all  mountaineers,  but 
yet  not  ready  or  willing  to  make  friendship  with  others 
than. their  own  townsmen.  They  still  possess  the  un- 
couth and  strong  wit  of  their  classic  ancestors,  together 
with  their  disregard  for  much  learning.  Their  famed 
love  of  music  is  lost.  For  the  songs  of  the  peasants 
and  shepherds  cannot  have  the  least  claim  to  excellence 
in  that  respect. 

As  in  antiquity,  so  now,  the  inhabitants  never  live  in 
isolated  houses,  but  always  in  groups,  forming  hamlets 
or  towns.  All  Arkadia  now  possesses  but  one  center 
large  enough  to  be  called  a  city,  Tripolis,  which  oc- 
cupies a  position  between  the  ruins  of  Tegea  and 
Mantineia,  and  is  the  modern  successor  of  these  famous 
cities;  and  yet  ancient  Arkadia  had  at  least  a  dozen 
cities  more  important  than  this  modern  Tripolis. 

Many  of  the  modern  villages  are  very  picturesque; 
all  of  them  are  situated  most  romantically.  The  prin- 
cipal buildings  in  every  village  are  the  churches.  The 
stranger  is  often  surprised  to  find  such  imposing 
edifices  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  village  of  huts.  But 


IN  ARKADIA  187 

the  Arkadian  of  today,  like  his  ancestors,  is  religious — 
more  religious  than  good.  He  delights  in  feasts,  and 
in  the  "panegyrics,"  or  occasions  of  dancing,  singing, 
and  eating  that  accompany  church  celebrations.  Every 
mountain  top  is  crowned  with  a  chapel,  and  has  its 
analogous  feast-day,  when  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
village  to  which  the  mountain  belongs  ascend  to  the 
little  plateau  round  the  chapel,  many  of  them  dressed 
in  mountain  costumes  of  kilt  and  fez,  where  they  first 
hear  mass,  and  then  amuse  themselves  in  lively  songs 
and  vigorous  dances,  and  in  feastings,  in  which  roast 
lamb  and  resinated  wine  play  the  chief  role.  It  is  also 
common  to  build  chapels  near  springs  of  cool  water. 
These  chapels  are  often  sacred  to  the  Madonna,  under 
the  title  of  "zoodochos  pege,"  or  "the  Fountain  that 
contains  the  Life-Giver,"  referring  to  the  Blessed 
Virgin  as  Mother  of  God,  while  the  chapels  on  moun- 
tain tops  are  usually  dedicated  to  the  prophet  Elias  or 
to  the  Ascension  of  Our  Lord. 

That  the  ancient  Arkadians  were  likewise  religious 
is  evident  in  many  ways,  and  tangibly  by  the  fact  that 
they  built  most  beautiful  and  costly  temples.  Two  of 
the  noblest  temples  of  the  Peloponnesos  were  in  Arka- 
dia;  one  at  Tegea,  sacred  to  Athena  Alea,  and  the 
other  at  Bassae,  built  in  honor  of  Apollon  Epikourios. 
Of  Apollon's  temple  splendid  ruins  are  still  to  be  seen; 
and  of  Athena's  shrine  there  exist  beautiful  pieces  of 
sculpture  from  the  pediments  and  frieze.  What  a  pity 
for  the  artistic  fame  of  Arkadia  that  these  temples  had 
to  be  built  by  foreign  artists !  For  the  masterpiece  at 
Bass?e  is  the  work  of  Iktinos  the  Athenian,  who  built 
the  famous  Parthenon  on  the  Akropolis  of  Athens;  and 


i88  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  temple  of  Athena  at  Tegea  was  planned  and  dec- 
orated by  the  equally  famous  sculptor  and  architect, 
Skopas,  from  the  island  of  Paros. 

The  villages  are  often  situated  at  the  heads  of 
streams,  on  the  slopes  of  theater-shaped  dells,  where 
the  gushing  fountains  serve  both  for  furnishing  drink- 
ing water,  which  the  Greek,  despite  his  like  for  a 
moderate  quantity  of  wine,  regards  as  the  most  luxu- 
rious of  beverages,  and  for  irrigating  the  gardens  that 
often  surround  the  houses  of  the  smaller  villages. 

These  village  fountains  are  the  beginnings  of  moun- 
tain torrents,  which  flow  on  until  most  of  them  empty 
into  the  Alpheios  or  its  tributary,  the  Ladon.  Chiefly 
these  two  rivers  carry  off  the  waters  of  western 
and  southern  Arkadia.  The  source  of  the  Ladon  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  imaginable.  It  rises,  a  full 
stream,  suddenly  out  of  the  earth  at  the  foot  of  the 
Aroanian  mountains.  In  this  Ladon,  as  well  as  in  the 
crystal  Lousios,  in  which  the  nymphs  used  to  bathe  the 
infant  Zevs,  the  most  beautiful  of  streams,  and  in  other 
mountain  torrents,  there  is  an  abundance  of  finest 
speckled  trout  and  other  fresh-water  fish,  which  would 
afford  excellent  sport,  but  which  the  natives  kill  and 
catch  by  exploding  dynamite  in  the  streams. 

These,  then,  are  the  wonderful  hills  and  valleys  and 
streams  of  Arkadia,  with  their  untamed  denizens ;  and 
here  is  something  of  their  long  and  varied  history  of 
myth  and  lore,  which  make  up  the  poetical  land  that, 
on  account  of  its  scenery,  has  been  called  "the  Switzer- 
land of  the  Peloponnesos." 


MEGA  SPEL^ON,  OR  THE  MONASTERY  OF 
THE  GREAT  CAVE 

In  the  early  years  of  its  existence  monastic  life  was 
identical  in  the  East  and  in  the  \Vest.  But  this  identity 
rapidly  disappeared.  For,  while  the  western  monk, 
more  active  and  sympathetic  than  his  eastern  proto- 
type, could  not  hold  himself  aloof  from  the  temporal 
and  spiritual  welfare  of  his  fellow-Christians,  the  east- 
ern monk  became  more  and  more  selfish,  spent  his 
religious  solicitude  in  caring  for  no  one's  soul  or  body 
except  his  own;  and  while  remaining  a  passionate  de- 
fender of  eastern  dogma,  never  was  worried  by  the 
duty  of  laboring  either  with  hand  or  with  intellect  for 
the  amelioration  of  the  moral  condition  of  other  men. 

The  western  monk  interested  himself  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  people  and  rivaled  the  lay  priest's  care  of 
souls.  His  superiority  of  learning  and  austerity  of  life 
rendered  him  more  efficient  than  his  secular  confrere, 
and  the  result  was  that  the  lay  priest  had  to  imitate 
him,  and  practically  become  a  monk,  in  order  not  to 
lose  his  sway  and  influence.  The  western  lay  priest 
accordingly  accepted  the  celibacy  and  office  and  se- 
cluded life  of  the  monk,  remaining  different  only  by 
his  not  taking  up  his  abode  within  the  walls  of  a  mon- 
astery. This  influence,  however,  was  mutual,  and  not 
all  from  one  side,  as  is  evident.  Although  each  set  of 
clergy,  by  a  kind  of  natural  fitness,  devoted  itself  rather 
to  one  kind  of  work  than  to  another,  yet  no  kind  was 
exclusive  property.  In  reality,  therefore,  the  religious 


HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

priests  of  the  West  differ  from  the  secular  clergy  only 
in  the  very  unimportant  accidentals  of  dress  and  in 
routine  of  life. 

While,  then,  the  priests  of  the  West  are  practically 
all  monks,  and  the  monks  of  the  West  have  nearly  all 
become  secular,  this  useful  amalgamation  has  not  taken 
place  in  the  East.  There  the  secular  priest  has  accepted 
almost  nothing  from  the  regular;  and  the  monk,  al- 
though in  some  countries,  as  in  Russia,  encroaching  on 
the  domain  of  the  secular  priest,  has  not  assimilated 
himself  unto  him.  This  lack  of  assimilation  is  as 
natural  in  the  East  as  it  would  have  been  strange  in 
the  West.  For  in  the  East  the  monk  has  really  no 
qualities  exclusively  his  that  would  add  luster  to  the 
life  of  other  men;  and  the  secular  has  no  special  virtues 
distinguishing  him  from  any  good  member  of  his  flock 
that  the  religious  might  be  moved  to  emulate. 

In  Greece  and  Turkey  monasticism  has  essentially 
remained  what  it  was  centuries  ago ;  and  what  does  not 
change  and  grow,  if  a  thing  of  life,  is  probably  in  the 
stage  of  decline  or  decrepitude.  Monasticism  is  not 
on  the  same  level  in  all  parts  of  the  East.  In  some 
countries,  as  in  most  of  Russia,  it  is  still  in  vigorous 
activity.  In  Greece,  however,  it  has  become  a  useless 
institution,  and  unless  renewed  by  being  thoroughly 
reformed,  will  soon  lose  what  little  influence  it  still 
possesses. 

The  following  historical  and  descriptive  sketch  of 
one  of  the  most  noted  monasteries  of  the  East,  and  the 
most  celebrated  and  popular  one  of  the  modern 
kingdom  of  Greece,  will,  at  least  indirectly,  furnish 
some  idea  of  what  monasticism  has  been  here,  what  it 


MEGA   SPEUEON  191 

is,  and  what  the  Greeks  think  of  it.  My  judgments, 
if  not  always  formed  on  theirs,  agree  therewith.  They 
properly  respect  the  monasteries  and  monks,  not  ex- 
clusively in  proportion  to  their  worth  today,  but  also  in 
relation  to  their  historic  past.  My  sketch  will  follow 
this  idea,  and  will  describe  the  monastery  as  it  appeals 
to  the  Greek,  and  as  it  really  is. 

Mega  Spelseon  is  not  the  only  famous  monastery  of 
free  Greece.  For  Hagia  Lavra  in  Arkadia,  the  Mete- 
ora  in  Thessaly,  the  Taxiarchs  near  ^Egion,  and  others 
also  have  their  peculiar  historic  reputation.  But  Mega 
Spelaeon  has  been  more  closely  connected  with  the 
varied  life  and  fortunes  of  the  people,  and  has  partaken 
of  their  aspirations  more  than  any  of  these  others.  It 
is  also  the  largest  in  respect  of  the  number  of  monks 
and  the  most  noted  in  respect  of  wealth. 

Mega  Spelseon  is  located  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
Peloponnesos  and  in  the  province  of  ancient  Arkadia, 
near  to  where  the  mountains  of  Arkadia  join  the  neigh- 
boring ones  of  Achaia.  It  is  situated  high  on  the  slope 
of  a  long  cliff  overlooking  the  rocky  bed  of  the  Erasi- 
nos  river,  which  brings  down  into  the  Korinthiac  Gulf 
portions  of  the  waters  of  the  Aroanian  and  Eryman- 
thian  Mountains.  The  monastery  stands  about  one 
mile  above  the  river,  to  the  east. 

Formerly  Mega  Spelason  was  quite  difficult  of 
access.  It  could  be  reached  only  on  foot  or  on  horse- 
back, as  no  wagon-road  either  in  ancient  or  in  modern 
times  had  been  cut  across  these  Arkadian  cliffs.  The 
nearest  centers  of  civilization  in  the  late  Middle  Ages, 
and  up  to  the  present  time,  were  and  are  the  village  of 
Kerpine,  where  the  French  chieftains  of  Charpigny 


192  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

built  one  of  their  fortresses,  and  which  is  distant  by  a 
walk  of  two  hours;  the  town  of  Kalabryta,  distant  to 
the  south  more  than  two  hours ;  Korinth,  sixteen  hours 
away  toward  the  rising  sun;  and  Patrae,  twelve  hours 
toward  the  west.  Now,  however,  a  pilgrimage  to 
Mega  Spelaeon  involves  no  unpleasant  toil  of  journey- 
ing whatsoever.  In  1895,  a -military  railroad  was  built 
through  the  gorge  of  the  Erasinos,  and  thus  easy  com- 
munication now  exists  between  Northern  Arkadia  and 
the  Korinthiac  Gulf.  This  railroad  is  of  the  toothed 
kind.  The  ascent  is  in  some  places  dangerously  steep, 
as  can  be  suspected  from  the  fact  that  the  station  in 
Kalabryta,  although  distant  only  twenty-one  kilo- 
meters from  the  station  near  the  gulf,  is  two  thousand, 
one  hundred,  and  seventy-five  feet  higher.  The  ride 
up  this  incline  is  wonderful.  The  train,  consisting  of 
an  engine  and  one  car,  creeps  up  along  its  steep  path, 
over  high  and  short  bridges,  under  overhanging  ledges 
of  rock,  over  waterfalls,  through  tunnels,  under  cliffs 
so  tall  that  one  cannot  see  their  tops  from  the  car  at 
times,  with  the  Erasinos  rushing  and  surging  along- 
side. Just  below  the  monastery  is  a  small  village  with 
the  foreign  name  of  Zachlorou,  where  the  cars  stop. 
Zachlorou  is  nineteen  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high, 
although  it  is  distant  only  eleven  kilometers  from  the 
gulf.  From  Zachlorou  to  the  monastery,  which  is 
about  ten  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  station  at 
an  angle  of  about  forty  degrees,  the  ascent  is  made  by 
donkey  along  a  zig-zag  path.  About  half  an  hour  is 
required  to  make  the  ascent. 

The  history  of  the  monastery  has  been  written  by 
one  of  the  most  noted  of  modern  scholars  in  the  Greek 


MEGA   SPEUEON  193 

church,  QEkonomos  ex  QEkonomon.  It  was  published 
in  the  year  1840,  under  the  title  of  Ktitorikon,  or  Pros- 
kynetarion  of  the  Mega  Spelaon,  in  Greek.  But  the 
early  centuries  of  the  history  of  the  monastery  are  so 
enveloped  in  obscurity  and  pious  story  that  they  can- 
not be  clearly  examined.  Its  later  history,  however, 
and  the  part  it  took  in  the  stirring  events  that  occurred 
in  Greece  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  are  well 
known. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  original  monastery  was 
established  on  the  exact  site  of  the  present  one,  that  is, 
in  the  cave  from  which  the  institution  takes  its  name. 
The  custom  of  founding  monasteries  and  churches  in 
caves  was  frequent  during  the  early  and  middle  ages 
of  Christianity.  It  came  in  part  from  the  habit  which 
the  anchorites  had,  of  not  surrounding  themselves  with 
anything  that  resembled  intentional  luxury  or  even 
ease.  To  such  men  these  caves  afforded  a  natural, 
ready,  and  sufficient  shelter.  In  many  places  through- 
out the  East  may  be  found  monasteries  that  originated 
from  a  cave  and  a  cave-dwelling  anchorite. 

It  is  this  spacious  grotto,  then,  that  furnished  to  the 
monastery  its  name  of  Mega  Spelaeon,  or  the  Great 
Cave.  Ecclesiastically  it  should  rather  be  called  "the 
monastery  of  the  Assumption,"  since  it  is  sacred  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  and  celebrates  with  special  pomp  the 
feast  of  the  fifteenth  day  of  August  in  her  honor.  But 
the  other  name  is  the  only  one  in  official  as  well  as  in 
popular  use.  And  a  precious  image  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  which  is  kept  here,  is  known  everywhere 
throughout  Greece,  in  its  copies,  as  the  "Panagia 
MegaspelcTotissa,"  or  the  Madonna  of  the  Great  Cave. 


194  HELLADTAN  VISTAS 

The  cave  itself  is  about  ninety  feet  high  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  long.  It  is  in  the  mountain 
side,  at  the  foot  of  a  towering  and  perpendicular  face 
of  solid  rock  that  rises  about  five  hundred  feet  straight 
in  the  air  above  it.  It  is  quite  deep,  so  that  the  princi- 
pal building  of  the  monastery  is  entirely  within  the 
cave.  A  stone  rolled  from  the  summit  of  the  cliff 
above  will  fall  clear  of  this  cavity  and  the  monastery. 

From  a  distance  the  monastery  can  be  seen  only 
from  the  mountain  heights  west  of  the  longitude  of 
the  cave.  Mysteriously  picturesque  does  it  appear 
from  the  top  of  the  ruined  citadel  of  the  Prankish 
knights  of  La  Tremoille  near  Kalabryta,  and  from  a 
few  points  along  the  banks  of  the  Erasinos,  especially 
from  a  place  called  "the  Maiden's  Fount,"  and  from 
the  higher  parts  of  the  opposite  village  of  Zachlorou. 
But  from  a  distance  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  a  point 
from  which  all  the  buildings  are  visible,  because  from 
most  of  the  neighboring  lookouts  a  portion  of  the 
group  of  curious  buildings,  and  oftenest  the  principal 
one,  is  hidden  behind  some  intervening  mountain  top. 
Most  often  only  the  old  tower  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff 
above  the  monastery  can  be  seen,  the  tower  built  as  a 
defense  against  the  Egyptian  army  of  Ibrahim  Pasha 
in  1827. 

The  principal  building  is  mostly  seven  stories  high. 
The  lower  portion  is  built  of  stone  and  the  upper 
stories  of  wood.  Most  of  this  stone  portion  is  about 
four  stories  high ;  but  since  its  various  sections  do  not 
all  begin  from  the  same  ground  level  it  does  not  all 
rise  to  the  same  horizontal  line  at  the  top.  Indeed  one 
could  easily  think  that  irregularity  in  lines  and  lack  of 


MEGA  SPEL;EON  195 

symmetry  were  intentionally  provided  for  by  the  suc- 
cessive architects  of  the  buildings.  The  fagade  of 
this  central  building  forms  not  a  straight  line,  but  an 
irregular  segment  of  a  circle,  following  the  contour  of 
the  cave.  It  is  the  custom  here  in  Greece  to  cover  the 
roofs  of  houses  with  brick  tiles.  This,  however,  can- 
not be  done  at  Mega  Spelaeon,  because  in  winter  gi- 
gantic icicles  form  on  the  rocky  side  of  the  cliffs  above, 
and  fall  with  tremendous  force  upon  the  monastery. 
These  roofs  have  therefore  to  be  made  of  thick  planks, 
capable  of  resisting  the  violence  of  the  falling  ice. 

A  characteristic  of  the  Greek  is  that  he  seldom 
makes  repairs.  This  fact  is  well  illustrated  here  at 
the  monastery.  Nothing  after  being  once  constructed 
is  ever  restored,  and  injured  parts  are  never  renewed 
becomingly  until  progressing  decay  necessitates  com- 
plete demolition  and  reconstruction.  Accordingly, 
the  various  buildings  with  their  crooked  lines  and  un- 
symmetrical  shapes  are  made  even  more  picturesque 
by  their  rickety  and  dilapidated  appearance. 

In  front  of  the  monastery,  toward  the  Erasinos, 
the  higher  slopes  of  the  mountain  side  are  all  carefully 
terraced  and  cultivated.  Vegetables  and  fruits  are 
raised  here  by  the  monks,  each  of  whom,  assisted  by 
his  famulus,  tills  a  small  patch,  from  which  he  supplies 
his  table.  These  terraces  and  hanging  gardens  are 
separated  off  from  each  other  by  supporting  walls  of 
stone  and  by  irregular  rows  of  trees  and  flowering 
shrubbery.  The  walls  are  covered  with  masses  of  ivy 
and  wild  vines  in  most  luxuriant  profusion.  A  num- 
ber of  these  enchanting  gardens  can  be  seen  from  the 
windows  of  the  monastery.  Nightingales  and  other 


196  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

sweet-voiced  birds  fill  the  air  with  music  morning  and 
evening.  The  monks  have  the  good  quality  of  being 
lovers  of  the  beauties  of  nature.  The  slovenliest  of 
them  will  cultivate  a  few  flowers  in  his  garden,  and 
perhaps  have  a  song  bird  in  his  cell.  Having  once 
climbed  to  the  top  of  the  cliffs  that  overhang  the 
monastery  to  the  tower  where  Ibrahim's  Egyptians 
were  repulsed,  I  came  suddenly  upon  a  priest  wearing 
cassock  and  kalimavki  standing  statue-quiet  among 
the  bushes,  and  on  inquiry  learned  from  him  that  his 
lonely  posing  was  due  to  his  watching  some  young 
bullfinches  which  had  just  left  their  nest.  He  had 
already  caught  one  and  had  it  imprisoned,  chirping 
and  fluttering,  in  the  pocket  of  his  cassock.  He  said 
that  he  wanted  them  for  his  cell,  as  the  bullfinch  is 
an  excellent  songster.  But  when  I  met  him  again,  a 
few  days  later,  he  hastened  to  tell  me  with  sorrow 
that  his  prisoners  of  melodious  hopes  had  died. 

The  story  which  the  monks  narrate  as  to  why  this 
site  was  selected  for  a  monastery  is  that  within  the 
cave  an  image  of  the  Madonna  was  discovered  by  a 
native  shepherdess  of  Zachlorou,  a  pious  girl  named 
Evphrosyne,  and  that  in  consequence  of  this  discovery 
two  monks  from  Thessalonike,  Saints  Symeon  and 
Theodores,  built  a  church  and  cells  in  the  cave,  and 
took  up  their  abode  in  it.  That  the  monastery  is  ex- 
tremely ancient  is  beyond  all  doubt.  And  the  tradition 
which  asserts  that  it  was  founded  by  these  two  saints 
in  the  fourth  century  is  perhaps  not  widely  incorrect. 
The  tradition  is  confirmed  by  the  office  which  the 
monks  sing  in  memory  of  its  reputed  founders, 
Symeon  and  Theodores,  who  along  with  Evphrosyne 


MEGA   SPEUEON  197 

are  commemorated  as  local  saints  on  October  18. 
Archaeological  methods  of  reasoning  bring  the  re- 
searcher back  toward  that  period.  And  since  the  fourth 
century  saw  monasteries  founded  in  many  other  parts 
of  the  Christian  world,  we  do  not  yield  much  to  tradi- 
tion by  not  positively  rejecting  for  the  origin  of  Mega 
Spelseon  a  date  so  early. 

In  the  year  1641,  a  terrible  conflagration  visited  the 
monastery  and  consumed  everything — the  buildings, 
the  church,  the  library,  and  the  archives.  Nothing  of 
importance  within  the  buildings  escaped  the  flames 
except  the  image  of  the  Madonna,  which  the  monks 
carried  off  to  a  place  of  safety.  This  annihilation  of 
all  older  monuments  and  the  destruction  of  the  records 
is  what  renders  the  early  history  of  the  monastery  so 
obscure.  Fortunately  a  few  important  documents 
were  saved  because  they  happened  to  be  kept  at  that 
time,  not  in  the  monastery,  but  in  one  of  its  various 
"metochia"  or  succursals.  Among  these  were  three 
golden  imperial  bulls  from  Constantinople. 

Documents  have  been  preserved  which  show  that 
the  church  which  was  reduced  to  ashes  by  the  con- 
flagration of  1641  had  been  rebuilt  or  renewed  from 
still  older  foundations  in  the  year  1285  with  money 
sent  from  Constantinople  by  the  emperor  Andronikos 
II.  One  might  suppose  that  since  the  Peloponnesos 
was  at  that  time  under  the  rule  of  the  Franks,  it  was 
strange  for  an  emperor  of  Constantinople  to  become 
the  benefactor  of  a  monastery  within  their  dominions. 
But  there  could  not  have  been  much  difficulty  in  doing 
so,  for  Villeharduin  and  his  successors,  who  since  the 
Fourth  Crusade  in  1204  held  most  of  the  Peloponnesos, 


198  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

never  cut  the  church  of  their  Greek  subjects  loose  from 
Byzantine  influence.  The  gift  of  Andronikos  need 
indicate  no  imperial  sway  over  the  country.  And 
moreover  at  that  time  the  emperor  could  hope  for  the 
return  of  the  Peloponnesos  to  his  dominions,  for  it 
was  just  then  very  carelessly  governed  from  the  West. 
It  had  lately  been  added  to  the  possessions  of  Charles 
of  Anjou,  king  of  Naples.  The  king  of  Naples  died 
in  this  year,  and  his  successor,  Charles  II,  was  a  pris- 
oner in  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Aragon.  And  his 
viceroy,  Robert,  provided  temporarily  for  the  Pelopon- 
nesos by  placing  it  under  the  care  of  the  duke  of 
Athens,  Guillaume  de  la  Roche.  But  Guillaume  had 
nearer  and  more  vital  interests  in  his  own  dukedom, 
and  the  Prankish  possessions  of  the  Peloponnesos 
were  open  to  continual  attacks  from  the  garrisons  cf 
the  Byzantine  forts  of  Monembasia  and  Lakedaemon. 
It  is  also  well  known  that  Andronikos  was  a  religion? 
man.  He  followed  the  views  of  those  that  had  opposed 
the  ikonoklasts,  being  in  favor  of  the  images,  and 
therefore  would  be  well  disposed  toward  a  monastery 
where  was  venerated  a  picture  of  the  Madonna  reputed 
to  be  from  the  hand  of  the  apostle  St.  Luke.  He  also 
sent  to  the  monastery  one  of  the  three  golden  bulls 
mentioned  above. 

The  Megaspelseots,  after  this  fire  of  1641,  immedi- 
ately set  about  rebuilding  the  church  and  monastery. 
Within  the  following  year  a  good  portion  of  the  work 
was  completed.  And  in  the  year  1653,  the  church, 
which  had  already  been  entirely  rebuilt,  was  frescoed, 
as  is  shown  by  an  inscription  over  the  great  door  of 
the  narthex. 


MEGA   SPEUEON  199 

This  new  church,  which  dates  from  1641,  is  a  good 
specimen  of  the  late  Byzantine  style  of  ecclesiastical 
architecture.  The  church  is  not  visible  from  without, 
as  it  is  on  the  third  floor  of  the  principal  building,  and 
has  no  separate  facade  of  its  own.  The  main  part 
of  the  church  is  in  the  form  of  a  square,  in  the  middle 
of  which  four  pillars  support  a  beautiful  dome.  As 
is  usual  in  the  East,  the  sanctuary  is  separated  from 
the  body  of  the  church  by  a  wall  called  the  ikonosta- 
sion.  Three  doorways  lead  through  the  ikonostasion 
from  the  body  of  the  church  into  the  sanctuary.  This 
ikonostasion  is  extremely  rich,  being  of  wood  intri- 
cately carved  and  covered  with  gold.  When  looking 
at  it  one  cannot  fail  to  recall  the  luxurious  rococo 
ornamentations  so  much  favored  by  the  Jesuits  in 
Italy  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  The  ikonostasion 
receives  its  name  from  the  fact  that  it  is  decorated 
with  the  ikons  or  images  of  Christ  as  King  of  Kings, 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  the  Apostles,  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
and  the  patron  saints  of  the  church. 

To  the  right  of  the  worshipers,  in  this  ikonosta- 
sion is  the  great  treasure  of  the  monastery,  the  image 
already  mentioned,  the  Madonna  which  was  saved 
from  the  fire  of  1641,  and  which  the  tradition  of  the 
monks  attributes  to  the  hand  of  St.  Luke.  It  is  not 
a  painting  on  canvas  or  on  a  flat  surface,  but  is  a 
carved  image  in  high  relief,  made  of  wood  and  rep- 
resenting the  Virgin  holding  the  Child  in  her  lap.  It 
is  probably  a  very  old  work.  That  it  was,  however, 
made  by  the  apostle  is  merely  a  bit  of  pious  credulity 
which  adds  to  the  income  as  well  as  to  the  fame  of  the 
monastery.  The  image  is  covered  with  a  kind  of  wax, 


200  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

which  the  monks  profess  to  know  to  be  mastic.  It 
has  become  very  black  with  age  and  with  the  smoke 
of  incense.  The  image  may  possibly  be  technically 
classed  with  those  called  "kerochyt,"  and  finished  by 
a  process  called  "kerographia." 

The  decorations  of  the  church  of  Mega  Spelaeon 
are  rich  and  heavy.  The  effect  is  added  to  by  the  fact 
that  the  overhanging  cave  shuts  out  almost  all  the 
light  of  day  from  the  little  windows  in  the  dome,  al- 
lowing the  church  to  be  illuminated  only  by  the 
softened  light  which  streams  in  from  the  narthex 
through  the  open  doorway,  and  by  the  candles  and 
olive-oil  lamps  that  burn  in  front  of  the  ikons.  The 
walls  are  one  solid  mass  of  frescoes  in  heavy  colors. 
These  frescoes  represent  prophets  and  apostles  and 
martyrs  and  saints  and  holy  persons  hundreds  in 
number,  who  seem  in  the  dimness  to  be  standing  be- 
hind the  stalls  of  the  monks  and  listening  with 
mysterious  attention  to  the  chants  of  the  Holy  Office. 
In  the  middle  of  the. floor  beneath  the  dome  is  carved 
in  marble  the  two-headed  eagle  of  the  emperors  of 
Byzantion,  which  the  tsars  of  Russia  have  appro- 
priated. It  may  be  seen  in  many  Greek  temples  of  im- 
portance that  were  built  while  the  Greek  church  here 
was  subject  to  Constantinople.  The  entrance  into  the 
main  portion  of  the  church  from  the  outside  narthex 
is  through  a  doorway  which  is  closed  by  two  massive 
doors  of  brass,  made  in  1805.  They  are  covered  with 
figures  and  groups  of  figures  in  low  relief,  not  of  good 
but  of  pleasing  art.  Outside  of  these  gates  is  the 
outer  narthex,  or  vestibule,  where  those  who  come  to 
visit  the  church  may  sit  till  the  doors  be  opened. 


MEGA   SPEL^ON  201 

Besides  this  church  there  are  several  small  chapels. 
The  church  is  called  "katholikon,"  or  "katholikos 
naos,"  because  into  it  gather  the  "entire"  community 
for  such  services  as  are  intended  for  "all."  The 
smaller  chapels  are  five  in  number,  one  of  them  being 
sacred  to  St.  Luke,  as  the  painter  of  the  miraculous 
image,  and  another  to  St.  Evphrosyne,  to  whom  the 
place  of  the  hidden  image  was  revealed.  Sick  persons 
are  often  brought  to  the  monastery  to  be  relieved  of 
their  sufferings,  and  are  placed  in  the  chapel  of  Saint 
Evphrosyne.  It  is  so  small  that  no  more  than  three  or 
four  persons  can  enter  it  at  once.  As  a  rule  these 
chapels  are  used  only  when  more  than  one  mass  is  to 
be  said;  for,  according  to  the  canons  of  the  eastern 
church,  not  more  than  one  mass  may  be  celebrated  at 
the  same  altar  on  the  same  day.  Such  a  necessity, 
however,  is  not  so  very  frequent.  For  the  priests 
usually  celebrate  mass  only  when  they  have  "inten- 
tions." 

This  monastery  of  Mega  Spelaeon  belongs  to  the 
class  called  "stavropegiac."  Stavropegiac  churches 
and  monasteries  are  entirely  independent  of  the  au- 
thority of  the  bishop  and  other  local  ecclesiastical 
authority  in  the  diocese  where  they  are  established. 
They  depend  directly  on  the  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople. The  local  bishop  cannot  interfere  in  the 
appointment  of  the  abbot,  in  the  admission  of  novices, 
or  in  the  administration  of  the  property  of  the  monas- 
tery. Nor  is  he  specially  commemorated  in  the  office 
and  mass.  But  these  privileges  are  here  in  Greece 
now  merely  an  empty  historic  title,  for  shortly  after 
the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece  the  church 


202  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

was  declared  to  be  independent  of  the  patriarch,  and 
Constantinople  now  has  no  authority  whatsoever  over 
this  and  other  such  monasteries. 

In  consequence  of  its  fame  and  high  protection, 
Mega  Spelaeon  became  very  wealthy.  By  legacies  and 
other  gifts  it  came  into  possession  of  property  in  every 
part  of  the  Hellenic  world,  in  European  Turkey,  in 
Asia  Minor,  and  in  North  Greece,  besides  its  numerous 
possessions  in  the  Peloponnesos.  This  wealth  and 
property  were  secured  to  it  repeatedly  by  imperial  and 
patriarchal  bulls.  A  number  of  the  later  patri- 
archal bulls  referring  to  the  monastery  and  its 
property  are  still  in  existence  and  are  kept  in  the 
library.  Of  the  imperial  bulls  only  one  is  still  in  the 
possession  of  the  monastery,  that  of  John  Kanta- 
kouzen,  written  in  6856  anno  mundi,  that  is,  1348  after 
Christ. 

Peculiar  circumstances  later  occasioned  the  loss  of 
two  of  these  imperial  bulls.  In  1684,  the  Republic  of 
Venice  declared  war  anew  against  the  sultan ;  and  her 
armies,  under  the  leadership  of  Morosini,  succeeded  in 
liberating  the  entire  Peloponnesos  from  his  yoke.  By 
the  treaty  of  Carlovitz  in  1699,  the  Peloponnesos  was 
accordingly  declared  to  be  a  Venetian  possession.  This 
new  change  of  masters  occasioned  disputes  as  to  the 
legal  ownership  of  certain  lands  which  the  monastery 
claimed.  And,  to  vindicate  their  rights,  the  monks  in 
the  year  1713  sent,  for  inspection  and  confirmation, 
to  the  government  of  the  doges  three  imperial  bulls 
in  order  that  the  republic  might  renew  the  privileges 
therein  granted.  Venice,  however,  did  not  pay  much 
attention  to  the  affair,  probably  foreseeing  that  her 


MEGA   SPELyEON  203 

hold  on  the  Peloponnesos  was  but  temporary,  and  that 
it  would  not  seriously  benefit  either  the  monasteries 
or  Venice  to  restudy  the  questions  at  issue,  as  the 
possessions  in  dispute  were  liable  at  any  time  to  fall 
again  under  Turkish  rule.  And  in  fact  war  soon  broke 
out  afresh.  Then  Zacchseos,  the  monk  who  had 
brought  the  bulls  to  Venice,  returned  to  his  monastery 
so  as  to  be  with  it  in  the  dangers  of  war.  In  his  hurry 
to  depart  from  Venice  he  deposited  the  bulls  with  one 
of  the  secretaries  of  the  Venetian  government.  The 
result  of  this  war  was  that  in  1715  the  grand  vizier  Ali 
Koumourtzi  had  easily  reconquered  all  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesos. After  peace  was  restored,  the  monks,  being 
no  longer  subjects  of  Venice,  asked  for  the  return  of 
their  valuable  parchments.  The  request  was  not 
readily  complied  with.  And  after  much  delay  they 
were  glad  to  recover  the  latest  of  the  three,  that  of 
Kantakouzen;  but  even  from  this  one  the  golden 
medallion  or  seal  had  been  removed.  '  Where  this  me- 
dallion now  is,  as  well  as  the  fate  of  the  other  two 
bulls,  is  not  known. 

The  wealth  of  the  monastery  was  so  great  that  not 
many  years  ago  the  income  annually  was  more  than 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  made  a  yearly 
allowance  for  each  monk  of  about  fourteen  hundred 
dollars.  In  those  days  the  number  of  monks  ap- 
proached to  three  hundred.  Now  they  are  not  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty.  Of  late  years  the  entire 
income  is  not  greater  than  perhaps  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  There  is  no  way  of  discovering  the  exact 
sum,  although  the  abbot  and  counselors  are  supposed 
to  render  to  the  government  a  detailed  account  every 


204  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

year.  There  has,  however,  undoubtedly  been  a  great 
decrease  in  the  revenues  of  the  monastery,  both  be- 
cause it  has  gradually  lost  much  of  the  property  that 
it  possessed  outside  of  the  Peloponnesos,  and  also 
because  of  the  increasing  laziness  of  the  monks.  The 
government  of  Greece,  which  is  always  hard  pressed 
for  funds,  taxes  this  and  all  other  monasteries  quite 
severely,  making  it  necessary  for  the  monks  either  to 
become  industrious  or  else  to  suffer  somewhat  by  pri- 
vation. Most  of  the  monks  prefer  the  second  of  the 
two  evils. 

A  great  portion  of  monastic  property  has  been  con- 
fiscated. Indeed  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  govern- 
ment would  mercilessly  confiscate  all  valuable  monastic 
property,  were  it  not  that  by  doing  so  it  would  com- 
mit the  diplomatic  blunder  of  giving  the  example  to 
the  sultan.  In  Turkey  there  is  a  great  deal  of  property 
in  the  possession  of  the  Greek  monasteries.  And  these 
monasteries  in  Turkey  have  not  lost  their  usefulness 
to  Greece  and  the  Hellenic  cause.  It  is  to  the  interest 
of  Greece  to  be  solicitous  that  the  monasteries  within 
Turkish  territory  be  not  interfered  with  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  sultan.  And  therefore  it  cannot  give 
the  example  of  high-handed  confiscation  of  similar 
property  at  home.  Still  confiscation  quietly  does  go 
on.  The  ground  on  which  stands  the  American  School 
of  Classical  Studies  in  Athens  once  belonged  to  the 
Monastery  of  the  Angels.  Mega  Spelseon,  however, 
will  not  be  confiscated,  for  the  entire  nation  would 
deplore  such  an  act. 

The  life  of  the  anchorite  has  always  had  a  great 
fascination  for  the  Christian  Greek.  And  monasteries 


MEGA  SPEL^EON  205 

have  always  been  numerous  in  Greek  lands.  In  Turk- 
ish times  they  were  in  many  respects  useful.  The 
monasteries  then  were  places  where  more  or  less  of 
Greek  and  Christian  learning  was  diffused  and  where 
Christians  could  occasionally  assemble  and  feel  that 
they  were  not  under  the  eyes  of  spies.  The  monks 
continued  to  care  for  the  treasures  of  literary  antiq- 
uity, or  at  least  to  sell  them  to  Europeans,  thus  pre- 
venting their  complete  loss.  Ambitious  men  became 
monks  because  few  other  professions  then  brought  any 
kind  of  personal  security  together  with  a  little  honor. 
The  Turks  nearly  always  respected  the  monks. 

The  Greek  church  has  almost  ceased  to  be  a  teacher. 
She  no  longer  can  be  regarded  as  laboring  intelligently 
in  directing  or  forming  the  morals  of  the  people.  She 
presents  herself  to  the  Greek  as  a  serious  and  energetic 
authority  in  no  other  domain  than  that  of  religion 
and  religious  rites.  Every  historian  knows  that  at 
times  there  exists  a  divorce  between  morals  and  re- 
ligion, and  that  people  become  careless  or  unaware  of 
the  connection  between  the  two.  The  Greek  is  not 
a  bad  man  by  any  means,  but  it  is  not  evident  that  he 
owes  his  virtue  to  his  church.  The  Greek  who  be- 
comes a  novice  in  a  monastery  is  attracted  not  so  much 
by  the  morality  of  monastic  life  as  by  its  religiousness. 
It  may  happen  that  he  brings  with  him  only  the  most 
ordinary  virtues,  and  all  of  these  he  is  by  no  means  sure 
either  of  cultivating  or  of  increasing. 

At  Mega  Spelseon  each  monk  may,  if  he  chooses, 
keep  under  his  direction  one  or  more  young  boys,  who, 
after  reaching  the  age  of  twenty-five  years  and  spend- 
ing three  years  in  their  patron's  service  as  novices,  may 


2o6  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

receive  tonsure  and  become  monks.  The  monastery 
as  such  rarely  accepts  novices.  But  the  individual 
monks,  as  individuals,  according  to  their  own  abso- 
lutely free  choice,  take  these  boys,  who,  known  as 
"hypotaktikoi,"  that  is  "famuli,"  act  as  servants  to 
their  patron,  and  at  the  same  time  learn  how  to  live 
a  monastic  life.  They  also  often  become  the  inheritors 
of  his  personal  property.  A  not  entirely  unfounded 
belief  prevails  that  sometimes  these  famuli  have 
reasons  by  paternity  as  well  as  by  this  spiritual  adop- 
tion to  be  regarded  as  the  proper  heirs  of  their  patrons. 
The  monks  of  Mega  Spelseon  belong  to  the  class 
called  "idorrythmic."  As  such  they  are  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  those  others  of  the  "kcenobiac"  type. 
Kcenobiac  monks  live  a  life  in  common.  All  are  under 
the  direction  of  the  abbot  and  the  council,  and  must 
labor  for  the  common  good  of  the  monastery,  accord- 
ing to  the  will  of  their  superiors.  All  eat  at  the  same 
table.  Food  as  well  as  clothing  and  other  necessities 
are  supplied  from  the  common  funds  of  the  monastery. 
The  idorrythmic  life,  however,  is  very  different.  Each 
member  of  the  community  is  to  a  great  degree  inde- 
pendent. He  is  indeed  subject  to  certain  general  regu- 
lations, but  can  direct  and  employ  most  of  his  life  as 
he  wishes.  At  Mega  Spelaeon  each  monk  receives 
from  the  common  income  and  property  of  the  mon- 
astery an  amount  of  bread  and  wine  and  cheese  suffi- 
cient for  his  support  and  that  of  his  famulus.  A  small 
garden  is  also  allotted  to  him  in  which  he  raises  fruits 
and  vegetables  and  salads  for  his  table.  He  eats  in 
his  own  cell,  attended  by  his  famulus,  who  prepares 
his  food.  There  is  no  common  table  whatsoever. 


MEGA   SPEL^ON  207 

Since  wine  and  bread  are  common  property,  each 
monk  is  obliged  to  be  ready  to  assist,  either  he  or  his 
famulus,  in  the  cultivating  of  the  fields  that  produce 
the  wheat,  in  the  irrigating  of  these  fields  and  the  vine- 
yards, in  the  harvesting  of  the  wheat,  and  the  gather- 
ing and  pressing  of  the  grapes.  But  as  most  of  the 
lands  are  tilled  by  hired  men  or  are  pacted  out  to 
farmers,  these  labors  occupy  but  a  small  fraction  of 
the  monks'  time.  If  a  Megaspelseot  holds  any  office 
in  the  monastery  or  performs  any  duties  other  than 
those  mentioned  he  receives  a  proportionate  salary. 
The  religious  exercises  in  the  church  go  on  regularly, 
but  the  monks  may  attend  or  not  almost  as  they  please. 
And  surely  except  on  Sundays  or  feast  days  they  are 
absent  much  more  frequently  than  they  are  present. 

The  bread  and  wine  and  cheese,  which  are  doled 
out  free  to  all,  are  produced  from  the  farms  and  vine- 
yards and  pasture  lands  of  the  monastery.  In  the 
wine  cellar  there  are  two  famous  old  wine  casks  called 
"Stamates"  and  "Vangeles."  Stamates  holds  twelve 
thousand  okes,  or  nearly  four  thousand  gallons.  Van- 
geles formerly  was  much  larger  than  Stamates,  but 
one  end  of  the  cask  decayed  and  had  to  be  sawed  off, 
so  that  Vangeles  now  contains  only  nine  thousand 
okes,  or  somewhat  less  than  three  thousand  gallons. 

Monastic  life  in  the  East,  as  in  the  West,  has  been 
carefully  legislated  for  in  detail  by  the  canons  of 
various  general  and  local  councils,  and  these  canons 
have  been  explained  and  amplified  by  the  regulations 
of  the  greater  and  model  monasteries,  especially  those 
on  Mount  Athos.  The  rules  of  these  model  mon- 
asteries are  known  in  the  East  as  the  canons  of  St. 


208  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Basil,  and  all  monks  in  Greek  countries  are  regarded 
as  being  "Basilian."  But  these  careful  rules  now  exist 
for  the  Megaspelaeot,  as  for  other  Greek  monastic 
communities,  rather  in  theory  than  in  daily  applica- 
tion. Perhaps  the  only  regulations  which  they  rarely 
violate  are  those  concerning  fasting.  And  this  is  to 
us  the  more  remarkable,  as  the  fasts  in  the  Greek 
church  are  exceedingly  severe.  The  monks,  like  a 
good  portion  of  other  Greek  Christians,  observe  four 
separate  lents  every  year,  namely  the  quadrigesimal 
fast  of  winter  which  they  keep  in  common  with  the 
Catholics,  a  lent  of  two  weeks  before  the  feast  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles  which  is  celebrated  on  June  30, 
another  of  two  weeks  before  the  Assumption  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  in  August,  and  one  of  four  weeks 
during  the  Advent  of  Christmas.  These  are  all  lents 
of  very  severe  abstinence  rather  than  of  fast.  Be- 
sides, the  monks  never  fail  to  abstain  similarly  on  all 
the  remaining  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  of  the  year, 
avoiding  all  use  of  meat,  fish,  eggs,  butter,  cheese, 
and  oil. 

The  management  of  the  community  has  at  its  head 
the  hegoumenos,  or  abbot.  Among  all  the  abbots  of 
the  monasteries  of  Greece  he  of  Mega  Spelseon  ranks 
first.  He  is  a  mitered  abbot  and  has  the  privilege  of 
carrying  a  crosier  and  of  wearing  robes  similar  to 
those  of  a  bishop.  He  is  elected  for  a  period  of 
five  years,  the  monks  of  the  monastery  being  the 
electors.  Their  choice,  however,  must  be  confirmed 
by  the  Holy  Synod  at  Athens.  Only  such  monks  as 
have  lived  for  six  years  in  the  monastery  can  have  a 
vote  in  this  election.  The  privilege  of  electing  the 


MEGA   SPEUEON  209 

abbot  is  conceded  not  only  to  Mega  Spelaeon,  but  to 
all  monasteries  where  the  number  of  monks  is  more 
than  six.  Where  there  are  not  six  monks  the  abbot 
is  appointed  directly  by  the  Synod  at  Athens. 

In  the  management  of  affairs  the  abbot  is  assisted 
by  two  counselors,  who  with  the  abbot  constitute  a 
body  called  the  "hegoumeno-symboulion."  In  case 
this  body  fails  to  arrive  at  a  decision  in  regard  to 
important  matters,  they  call  to  their  assistance  such  of 
the  monks  as  have  been  previously  abbots,  and  others 
who  belong  to  the  category  of  "gerontoteroi."  The 
ex-abbots  are  usually  two  or  three  in  number,  and  are 
known  as  "prohegoumenoi."  The  gerontoteroi  are 
the  aged  monks  that  have  spent  a  long  and  edifying 
life  in  the  monastery.  And  if  this  larger  body  cannot 
settle  the  difficulties,  then  another  class  of  monks 
called  the  "senators"  is  summoned  to  take  part  in  the 
deliberations.  The  senators  are  monks  of  good  stand- 
ing who  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  forty-five.  What- 
ever be  the  decision  of  this  congress  consisting  of 
abbot,  counselors,  ex-abbots,  gerontoteroi,  and  sena- 
tors, it  is  final.  There  is  no  higher  authority  within 
the  monastery. 

The  monastery  possesses  quite  a  valuable  library. 
It  contains  about  twenty  manuscripts  of  the  gospels. 
Of  these  the  oldest  one  is  written  on  parchment  and 
dates  from  the  eleventh  century.  The  others  are  not 
so  old.  There  are  also  specimens  of  rare  editions  of 
the  classics  and  old  editions  of  the  fathers.  These 
books  and  manuscripts  are  chiefly  gifts.  How  in- 
teresting so  ever  they  be  to  the  bibliophile  or  to  the 
palaeographist  or  antiquarian,  they  have  but  little 


210  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

value,  comparatively,  as  books  for  an  ordinary  library 
and  for  daily  use.  This  fact  is  immediately  evident 
to  anyone  who  visits  the  library,  in  spite  of  the  re- 
peated assertion  of  the  librarian  that  the  monks  are 
very  fond  of  reading.  The  monastery  buys  no  new 
books  as  a  rule.  Individual  monks  may  in  this  matter, 
as  in  others,  follow  their  own  inclination.  The  printed 
books  in  the  library  are  mostly  ecclesiastical  and 
theological.  Besides  serving  as  a  library,  this  room 
is  a  general  cabinet  of  historical  relics  and  curiosities. 
There  are  miters  of  mediaeval  bishops,  crosiers, 
jeweled  crosses,  relics  of  saints,  rich  old  vestments, 
vellum  manuscripts,  patriarchal  bulls,  in  profusion  and 
confusion. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  just  as  real  holiness 
is  not  much  in  vogue  among  the  monks,  so  also  is  deep 
learning  a  lost  art.  A  number  of  novices  from  Mega 
Spelseon  have  been  sent  to  the  higher  schools  to  study ; 
and  at  present  there  may  be  counted  at  least  a  score 
of  Megaspelseots  who  have  taken  a  course  in  theology 
or  philology.  Nearly  all  of -these  have  studied  in  the 
University  of  Athens,  a  few  of  them  in  Germany. 
But  after  completing  their  studies,  if  they  receive  no 
appointment  calling  them  to  labor  as  priests  in  some 
foreign  mission,  or  as  teachers  or  professors  in 
schools,  they  quickly  forget  their  scientific  habits  and 
lose  their  inclination  to  study.  Mega  Spelseon,  how- 
ever, has  good  men  engaged  in  professional  duties 
outside  of  the  monastery.  Several  of  the  bishops  of 
Greece  are  from  Mega  Spelseon,  including  the  Metro- 
politan of  Athens,  the  head  of  the  Hellenic  church. 

The  monastery  has  always  been  a  popular  shrine 


MEGA   SPEUEON  21 1 

for  pilgrims.  They  come  so  frequently  and  regularly 
that  the  monastery  provides  special  "xenons"  or  hotels 
for  them.  No  visitor  is  entirely  excluded  from  the 
hospitality  of  the  monastery.  These  pilgrims  go  there 
to  light  a  candle  before  the  image  of  the  Madonna, 
or  to  perform  some  other  religious  act,  or  have  a 
mass  said,  or  make  a  confession  and  receive  Holy 
Communion.  Many  come  in  consequence  of  a  vow, 
having  promised  that  if  certain  hopes  of  theirs  be 
fulfilled,  they  would  make  a  pilgrimage  to  the  mon- 
astery. One  can  often  see  such  people,  especially 
peasants  and  women,  performing  these  pilgrimages 
barefooted,  through  a  desire  to  do  penance. 

But  also  a  number  of  persons  go  to  Mega  Spelaeon 
simply  to  enjoy  the  pleasant  outing.  There  are  two 
"xenons,"  one  for  the  poorer  and  the  other  for  the 
richer  visitors.  Those  that  have  relations  or  friends 
among  the  monks,  especially  if  they  be  friends  of  the 
abbot,  are  taken  to  private  rooms  and  entertained 
elaborately.  All  visitors  must  arrive  before  sunset, 
as  at  that  time  the  outer  gates  are  barred,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  to  get  near  enough  to  persuade  the  man  in 
authority  to  open  them.  Likewise  all  weapons  must 
be  left  with  the  watchman  at  the  entrance  gate.  This 
is  a  relic  of  the  days  of  Turkish  sway. 

In  Turkish  times  the  monastery,  on  account  of  the 
protection  which  its  sacredness  afforded  to  the 
"rajahs,"  was  regarded  as  a  proper  place  for  the 
Christians  to  meet  once  every  year  and  hold  a  kind  of 
fair,  each  visitor  bringing  whatever  he  had  to  sell  and 
purchasing  such  objects  as  he  had  need  of.  Little 
merchants  from  afar  came  and  exposed  their  wares 


212  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  trinkets.  But  after  the  wars  of  liberation  were 
over  this  practice  was  discontinued  and  the  fair  was 
transferred  to  the  neighboring  town  of  Kalabryta, 
where  it  is  still  held  annually,  at  the  same  time  of  the 
year,  the  week  preceding  the  feast  of  the  Assumption, 
in  August.  At  Mega  Spelaeon,  however,  the  name 
still  remains  attached  to  a  hill  in  front  of  the  mon- 
astery, called  "the  hill  of  the  fair,"  and  on  its  top  is 
a  chapel  called  the  "Madonna  of  the  fair"  or  the 
"Panegyristria." 

The  monks  of  Mega  Spelseon  on  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  recruited  are  from  among 
the  people  of  the  neighboring  provinces  of  Achaia, 
Arkadia,  and  Korinthia.  Being  children  of  the  people, 
they  have  always  sympathized  with  the  struggles  of 
the  people,  and  this  at  times  when  it  was  a  sacrifice 
to  do  so.  When  in  the  year  1819  the  Philike  Hetaeria, 
which  had  been  organized  in  Odessa  in  1814,  and 
whose  object  was  the  liberation  of  the  Christians  of 
the  East  from  Moslem  rule,  began  to  be  more  freely 
propagated  in  the  Peloponnesos,  Hierotheos,  the  abbot 
of  Mega  Spelason,  together  with  three  other  monks, 
was  among  the  noted  Peloponnesians  that  joined  the 
society.  And  after  the  patriotic  convention  of  the 
leading  Christians  at  ^Egion,  five  hours  distant  from 
'the  monastery,  this  Philotheos,  being  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  reliable  and  patriotic  priests  of  the  Greeks, 
was  commissioned  to  travel  through  the  Peloponnesos 
and  communicate  with  the  other  rajahs  and  prepare 
them  for  the  approaching  strife  by  giving  advice  and 
collecting  funds. 

On  account  of  its  impregnable  position  the  mon- 


MEGA   SPEL^ON  213 

astery  was  a  frequent  place  of  refuge  for  many  during 
the  awful  wars  of  annihilation  from  1821  to  1828. 
In  1821,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  struggle,  when  the 
Christians  massacred  the  unfortunate  Turks  of  Lan- 
gadia,  Kanellos  Delegiannes,  one  of  the  most  promi- 
nent Christians  of  that  town,  hurried  his  wife  and 
children  off  to  Mega  Spelseon,  in  order  that  he  might 
feel  more  at  ease  in  fighting  for  his  country.  Like- 
wise the  family  of  the  old  hero  Zaimes  took  refuge 
here  more  than  once. 

In  spite  of  the  benefits  conferred  on  the  cause  of  the 
Christians  by  the  monastery  and  monks,  it  escaped  all 
serious  damage  from  the  Turks.  Only  in  the  last 
year  of  the  war,  in  1827,  was  it  threatened  with  im- 
pending destruction ;  but  the  danger  was  averted.  The 
sultan  of  Turkey  failing  of  being  able  either  to  sup- 
press or  annihilate  the  Christians,  after  six  years  of 
fire  and  sword  and  assassination,  called  to  his  aid  the 
bloody  Ibrahim  Pasha  of  Egypt,  offering  him  the 
country  in  fief  if  he  could  subdue  it.  Ibrahim  came 
with  an  army  of  Arabs  and  destroyed  everything  in 
his  way.  In  July  of  1827  he  came  to  Kalabryta,  three 
hours  distant  from  the  monastery.  He  was  full  of 
triumph,  for  he  had  captured  and  destroyed  the  im- 
mortal town  of  Mesolonghion,  had  ravaged  and 
burned  most  of  the  Peloponnesos,  and  had  made  many 
of  the  rajahs  kiss  his  hand  in  submission.  He  brought 
an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men  against  the  mon- 
astery. But  Kolokotrones  had  by  his  wonderful  skill 
succeeded  in  sending  a  band  of  his  palikars  there,  who, 
uniting  their  strength  to  that  of  the  monks,  formed  a 
defending  body  of  about  six  hundred  men.  They 


214  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

dragged  two  or  three  old  cannon  to  the  top  of  the  rock 
above  the  monastery,  located  them  in  the  fort  there, 
and  prepared  to  resist. 

Ibrahim  to  save  himself  the  trip  to  the  monastery 
sent  three  successive  letters  calling  their  attention  to 
his  proximity,  to  his  large  army  and  his  artillery,  and 
advising  them  to  surrender  and  acknowledge  his 
authority.  According  to  a  copy  preserved  in  the  mon- 
astery, the  answer  of  the  monks  was  as  follows : 

Most  high  ruler  of  the  army  of  the  Othmans,  hail.  We  have 
received  your  note,  and  we  are  aware  of  what  you  mention. 
We  know  that  you  are  as  near  as  the  fields  of  Kalabryta,  and 
that  you  have  all  the  means  of  war.  But  for  us  to  submit  to 
you  cannot  be  done,  because  we  are  under  oath  by  our  faith 
either  to  get  free  or  to  die  in  war;  and  according  to  our  belief 
it  is  not  right  to  break  our  holy  oath  to  our  country.  We 
advise  you  to  go  and  fight  somewhere  else.  Because  if  you 
come  here  and  conquer  us  the  misfortune  will  not  be  very  great, 
as  you  will  merely  rout  some  priests.  But  if  you  be  kept  at 
bay,  as  we  surely  expect  with  the  help  of  God,  because  we  have 
a  good  position,  it  will  be  a  blame  to  you,  and  then  the  Greeks 
will  take  heart  and  will  hunt  you  down  from  all  sides.  This  is 
our  advice;  look  you  to  your  interests  like  a  knowing  man.  We 
have  a  letter  from  the  Boule  and  from  General  Kolokotrones  that 
he  will  under  all  circumstances  send  us  palikars  and  food,  and 
we  will  soon  all  be  free  men  or  will  die  true  to  our  holy  oath 
of  country. 

Damaskenos  the  abbot,  and  the  priests  and  monks  with 
me.  June  21,  1827. 

Kolokotrones'  aid-de-camp  Chrysanthopoulos  com- 
manded the  monks  and  palikars  that  defended  the 
monastery.  For  two  days  did  Ibrahim  rage  against 
it  with  infantry  and  artillery  and  cavalry.  But  he  had 
to  withdraw,  concluding  that  the  monastery  was  im- 


MEGA   SPEUEON  215 

pregnable  by  its  position  and  its  defenders.  He  went 
back  to  Arkadia  to  continue  his  devastations  elsewhere. 
Two  months  later  his  ships  were  sunk  in  the  harbor  of 
Navarino  by  the  united  fleets  of  Europe,  and  the 
Greeks  were  free. 

Otho  loved  the  monks  of  Mega  Spelaeon.  Twelve 
of  them  did  he  especially  honor,  and  with  his  own 
hands  pinned  the  medals  for  bravery  on  their  breasts. 
The  room  is  still  shown  at  Mega  Spelaeon  where  he 
slept.  And  the  monks  still  love  to  tell  of  how  he 
hugged  some  of  the  old  heroes  that  had  fought  in  the 
war  of  liberation;  for  many  of  the  older  monks  still 
remember  the  great-hearted  king,  Otho  the  Bavarian. 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA 

From  a  racial  point  of  view,  what  constitutes 
a  people?  This  is  a  mere  academic  question  which, 
if  solved,  would  bear  no  strong  influence  on  our  public 
life.  Men  are  today  catalogued  not  generally  by  the 
race  from  which  they  trace  their  descent,  but  rather 
by  the  state  whose  power  controls  and  protects  them. 
Such  words  as  "fatherland"  and  "Irishman"  could  not 
be  created  today,  with  their  original  strength  and  sig- 
nificance. Following  the  example  of  the  Romans,  we 
are  citizens  or  subjects  of  our  respective  governments, 
and  nothing  else.  And  when  we  wage  successful  war 
we  now  fight,  not  for  "our  altars  and  our  fires,  and 
the  graves  of  our  ancestors,"  but  for  the  political  ideas 
of  our  government. 

The  ties  which  bind  us  together  into  a  powerful 
unit,  into  a  state,  are  very  different  from  the  liens 
which  kept  the  old  Greeks  in  touch  with  each  other. 
The  Greeks  were  indeed  united,  just  as  closely  as  are 
the  citizens  of  any  modern  state,  but  the  union  was 
of  a  totally  different  kind.  To  the  mind  of  the  Greek, 
the  existence  of  any  voluntary  subjection  which  would 
make  him  humbler  than  having  to  submit  to  the  laws 
and  regulations  of  one  sole  city  was  not  logically  tol- 
erable. According  to  the  best  Greek  teaching,  no  gov- 
ernment might  reasonably  extend  beyond  the  fields  that 
surround  each  city.  The  "polity"  or  city-state,  as  the 
Greek  "polis"  has  been  translated,  was  to  their  minds 
the  only  philosophical  form  of  governmental  power. 

216 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  217 

Accordingly,  when  under  Makedonic  inspiration,  great 
states  were  created  by  conquest,  the  subjects  were  for 
the  most  part  not  Greeks  but  "barbarians."  Indeed  the 
old  Greeks  did  not  have  in  their  language  a  word  cor- 
responding to  the  expression  "state."  And  when  in  the 
last  century  their  descendants,  the  Romsean  Greeks  of 
today,  gained  their  independence  and  organized  them- 
selves into  a  state,  they  had  to  adapt  an  old  word  to 
the  new  idea,  and  their  little  state  is  called  a  "Kratos." 
One  of  the  characteristics  that  heighten  the  resemblance 
between  the  present  inhabitants  of  Hellas  and  their 
classic  ancestors  is  the  immense  pride  which  they  feel 
for  their  race  and  descent  and  native  towns,  and  their 
comparative  lack  of  sympathy  for  a  powerful  and 
widely  extended  state.  This  is  one  potent  reason  why 
the  Greeks  have  not  succeeded  in  uniting  all  the  peoples 
of  the  Balkans  into  one  great  commonwealth,  under 
Hellenic  leadership.  Phyletic  union  is  certainly  nobler 
than  the  equality  of  fellow  subjection.  But  statedom 
is  now  required  as  a  condition  for  racial  existence. 

Racial  union  among  the  old  Greeks,  based  on  the 
belief  that  they  were  all  descended  from  the  same  stock, 
and  were  therefore  all  of  kindred  blood,  manifested 
itself  in  various  ways.  They  spoke  all  of  them  the 
same  language,  a  fact  which  then  was  much  more  re- 
markable than  such  a  phenomenon  would  be  today. 
They  worshiped  the  same  or  similar  gods,  for  their 
religious  and  cosmological  ideas  were  the  same.  Their 
common  religion  was  perhaps  one  of  their  strongest 
bonds  of  union.  They  came  together  and  celebrated 
periodical  panegyrics  at  the  more  noted  shrines  of 
their  common  deities.  At  these  meetings  they  also 


218  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

often  settled  disputes  existing  between  neighboring 
tribes.  Thus  were  established  the  well-known  "am- 
phiktionic  assemblies"  or  courts  whose  function  it  was 
to  decide  political  and  religious  and  similar  other 
questions  that  were  of  general  interest.  At  the  pane- 
gyrics they  also  indulged  in  their  love  for  physical 
sports  and  athletic  emulation,  and  thus  were  established 
the  great  national  contests,  such  as  those  at  Delphi, 
Korinth,  Nemea,  and  Olympia,  where,  after  perform- 
ing the  religious  ceremonies  due  to  the  gods,  they 
turned  themselves  to  manly  rivalry  in  the  primitive 
sports  of  running  and  leaping  or  hurling  the  spear 
and  throwing  the  diskos. 

Of  all  such  noted  games,  those  celebrated  at 
Olympia  were  then  the  most  universally  patronized, 
and  ever  since  have  been  most  honored  by  the  memory 
of  posterity.  Here  it  was  that  the  idea  of  Hellenic 
unity  most  forcibly  and  largely  presented  itself.  And 
when  some  leading  men  began  to  think  that  Hellenism 
could  not  continue  to  be  supreme  unless  it  convert 
itself  into  a  great  political  power,  into  a  kind  of  con- 
federated league  of  city-states,  it  was  from  here  that 
patriotic  orators  like  Isokrates  wished  to  imagine  that 
their  views  in  this  respect  had  been  expounded,  and 
that  here  they  had  delivered  their  imaginary  orations 
before  audiences  composed  of  men  from  all  parts  of 
the  civilized  world. 

For  the  Greeks  in  general  the  chief  motive  that 
brought  them  together  at  Olympia  was  the  desire  to 
witness  the  gymnastic  and  hippie  contests.  Never- 
theless Olympia  was  more  essentially  a  religious  shrine 
than  an  arena  for  sports.  The  daily  worship  of  the 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  219 

gods  continued  here  uninterrupted,  while  the  games 
took  place  only  at  intervals  of  four  years.  Religious 
worship  was  instituted  earliest,  and  the  contests  were 
added  later.  A  portion  of  the  Olympiac  field,  the 
holiest  part,  was  reserved  exclusively  for  the  shrines 
and  altars  of  the  gods  and  heroes.  This  was  the  Altis 
or  Sacred  Grove.  Not  even  the  priests  who  ministered 
to  these  deities  might  reside  within  this  wall-sur- 
rounded precinct.  The  learned  tourist  Pavsanias 
mentions  many  of  the  altars  within  the  Altis.  He 
enumerates  more  than  thirty-five.  On  all  of  these 
altars  the  priests  of  Elis  performed  sacrificial  worship 
at  least  once  in  every  month.  Their  ceremonies  were 
according  to  an  antique  ritual.  At  the  grand  altar  of 
Zevs  and  at  the  hearth  of  Hestia  the  solemn  rites  were 
performed  every  day. 

Olympia  was  not  a  city.  It  was  not  even  a  town. 
No  inhabitants  permanently  resided  there  save  the 
priests  and  their  attendants.  It  was  a  vast  sanctuary. 
During  most  of  the  ages  whose  events  are  recorded 
in  Peloponnesian  history,  the  territory  within  which 
lay  the  sanctuary  belonged  to  the  city  of  Elis  which 
stood  about  twenty  miles  distant.  The  men  of  Elis 
usually  had  the  sanctuary  under  their  control.  The 
priests  were  citizens  of  Elis,  as  were  all  of  the  other 
men  of  authority  who  directed  the  contests  and  rites. 
Olympia  was  a  noble  vista  of  temples  and  shrines  and 
altars  and  statues  and  votive  offerings  and  agonistic 
arenas.  It  lay  in  a  small  plain  east  of  where  the  swift 
Kladaos  throws  its  noisy  waters  into  the  silvery 
Alpheios.  The  plain  is  inclosed  on  all  sides  save  the 


220  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

west  by  low  mountains  which  are  the  last  outrunners 
of  the  high  ranges  of  Arkadia. 

How  this  site  came  to  be  chosen  for  these  pan- 
Hellenic  contests  no  tradition  knows;  yet  many  are 
the  mythic  stories  that  undertake  to  supply  this  defect 
in  history.  Like  Delphi,  the  primitive  glory  of 
Olympia  was  partly  due  to  prophetic  information  that 
used  to  be  distributed  to  worshipers  here.  At  the  shrine 
of  Zevs  the  pious  and  tremorous  men  of  aforetime 
could  get  mystifying  glimpses  into  the  obscure  region 
of  futurity.  Among  the  oldest  shrines  seem  to  have 
been  those  of  Zevs  and  Earth,  and  Hera.  Later  came 
the  erecting  of  gorgeous  temples  on  the  sites  of  these 
primitive  shrines.  Of  those  temples  whose  remains 
can  still  be  traced  among  the  debris  of  Olympia,  the 
most  primitive  is  that  of  Hera.  Seven  hundred  years 
before  Christ  this  Heraeon  already  existed.  So  sacred 
was  it  regarded  that  it  was  never  torn  down,  although 
built  of  wood;  but  occasionally,  as  portions  of  the 
wooden  building  decayed,  repairs  were  made  with 
masonry.  Thus  by  degrees  the  original  wooden 
structure  was  turned  into  a  more  permanent  one  of 
stone.  But  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Christ, 
one  of  the  original  wooden  columns  still  was  in  its 
place.  It  had  not  yet  decayed  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
have  been  necessarily  removed. 

This  primitive  temple  contained  a  primitive  cult- 
statue.  But  it  also  contained  newer  works.  Within 
it  Pavsanias  saw  a  statue  of  Hermes  which  had  been 
made  by  the  master-hand  of  Praxiteles.  The  excava- 
tions made  by  German  archaeologs  found  the  statue 
lying  in  the  earth  within  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  in 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  221 

front  of  the  base  on  which  it  had  originally  been 
erected.  It  is  thus  clearly  authenticated  as  being  a 
genuine  work  of  the  great  sculptor,  and  as  there  are 
but  few  such  originals,  it  is  highly  prized.  This 
Hermes  and  the  beautiful  statue  of  Victory  which  came 
from  the  chisel  of  Pseonios,  justly  form  the  pride  of 
the  rich  museum  at  Olympia. 

The  noblest  fane  in  the  holy  Altis  was  the  colossal 
House  of  Zevs,  a  Doric  structure  of  poros  stone,  two 
hundred  and  thirty  feet  in  length,  surrounded  by 
massive  columns,  and  ornamented  in  its  metopes  and 
gables  by  plaques  and  groups  of  archaic  statuary.  In 
the  metopes  were  represented  various  exploits  of 
Herakles,  the  strong  hero,  because  myth  asserted  that 
he  had  visited  Olympia  and  had  contested  there.  In 
the  front  gable  of  the  temple  was  the  legendary  chariot- 
race  between  (Enomaos  and  Pelops,  whereby  Pelops 
won  Hippodameia  as  his  bride.  CEnomaos  had  prom- 
ised his  daughter  to  him  who  would  outrun  her  father 
in  a  chariot  race.  This  feat  did  Pelops  accomplish 
though  thirteen  before  him  had  tried  and  failed,  and 
had  forfeited  their  life  as  a  result  of  their  failure. 

Within  this  temple  was  the  proudest  ornament  of 
Olympia,  the  statue  of  Zevs,  which  Pheidias  of  Athens 
had  constructed  entirely  of  gold  and  ivory.  When 
asked  what  model  he  proposed  to  follow  in  making 
this  statue,  Pheidias  said  that  he  intended  to  express 
the  lines  of  the  Iliad  where  Zevs  is  described  as  giving 
irrevocable  assent  to  a  prayer  made  to  him  by  Achilles' 
mother  : 

As  thus  he  spake,  the  son  of  Saturn  gave 

The  nod  with  his  dark  brows.    The  ambrosial  curls 


222  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Upon  the  sovereign  One's  immortal  head 
Were  shaken,  and  with  them  the  mighty  mount 
Olympos  trembled. 

So  magnificent  was  this  colossal  statue  of  gold  and 
ivory,  almost  forty  feet  high,  and  so  majestic  did  it 
appear  that  when  he  had  finished  it  Pheidias  prayed 
to  the  great  father  of  the  gods  to  reveal  his  pleasure 
if  he  was  satisfied  with  Pheidias'  work.  Thereupon 
did  Zevs  from  the  heavens  thunder  his  approval,  and 
hurled  a  saluting  lightning-stroke  to  indicate  his  ac- 
ceptance of  the  sculptor's  creation.  In  front  of  this 
statue  hung  in  the  second  century  after  Christ  an 
ancient  curtain  of  oriental  workmanship,  a  piece  of  art 
worthy  of  this  statue  and  this  temple.  It  is  not  en- 
tirely improbable  that  this  splendid  piece  of  tapestry 
was  the  curtain  which  had  once  been  the  veil  of  the 
temple  of  Yahweh  in  Sion,  and  which  had  been  con- 
fiscated by  the  plundering  king  of  Syria,  Antiochos 
Epiphanes.  What  became  of  the  gold-ivory  Zevs  of 
Pheidias  is  unknown.  Toward  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  of  our  era  it  seems  to  have  been  brought  to 
Constantinople,  and  may  have  been  placed  in  the  palace 
of  Lausus.  This  palace  was  destroyed  by  fire  in 
the  year  475,  and  thus  the  statue  may  have  perished. 

Outside  of  the  Holy  Grove  were  many  other  build- 
ings and  monuments;  treasure-houses  of  different 
Hellenic  cities,  bathing  establishments,  the  prytaneion 
where  the  priests  and  other  functionaries  had  their 
rendezvous  and  where  public  guests  and  the  victors 
were  officially  entertained,  votive  memorials  from 
kings  and  potentates,  solitary  columns,  innumerable 
statues  of  marble  and  bronze  and  occasionally  of 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  223 

costlier  material  such  as  electrum  or  ivory.  Such  was 
Olympia. 

Long  centuries  ago  the  buildings  of  Olympia  were 
overturned  by  earthquakes,  and  the  sand  from  the 
Kladaos  gradually  covered  up  most  of  the  ruins. 
Olympia  lay  buried.  About  two  centuries  ago  the 
learned  Benedictine  priest  Montfaucon  conceived  the 
hope  that  Olympia  might  be  unearthed.  He  wrote  to 
the  Latin  archbishop  of  Kerkyra,  Cardinal  Quirini, 
advising  him  to  make  excavations,  and  especially  rec- 
ommending this  site  as  a  place  where  research  would 
be  richly  rewarded.  The  learned  Benedictine's  advice 
did  not  have  much  effect.  Later  Winckelmann,  the 
pioneer  student  of  ancient  art,  attempted  to  awaken 
enthusiasm  for  the  recovery  of  what  the  debris  and 
alluvium  at  Olympia  were  hiding.  In  1829,  the  archae- 
ologists of  the  French  scientific  expedition  to  the  Pel- 
oponnesos  began  excavations,  but  soon  were  forced  to 
stop.  In  1875,  the  German  government  received  from 
Greece  the  permission  to  uncover  what  remained  of 
Olympia.  The  work  was  immediately  begun,  and  was 
ended  in  1881.  The  results  have  been  honorable  to 
Germany,  and  satisfactory  to  scholars,  as  can  be  seen 
by  a  visit  to  the  ruins  of  Olympia  and  the  adjacent 
museum,  or  by  reading  the  magnificent  volumes  which 
the  German  savants  that  conducted  the  work  have 
published. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  contests  that 
here  attracted  visitors  from  all  the  Hellenic  world  is 
based  both  on  literary  sources  and  on  the  results  of  the 
German  excavations.  The  contests  were  in  origin 
such  as  became  a  sturdy  primitive  people,  a  people 


224  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

where  such  men  as  had  not  bodies  fit  for  raids  and 
tribal  war  were  rather  cumbersome  on  the  community. 
The  contests  were  almost  exclusively  gymnic  and 
equestrian.  Literary  and  musical  contests  took  place 
elsewhere  in  Greece,  but  not  at  Olympia.  Nevertheless 
how  could  Greeks  entirely  exclude  the  intellectual 
even  from  their  most  savage  practices?  Though 
not  a  part  of  the  official  program  literary  feats 
were  intermingled  with  the  feats  of  bodily  prowess. 
Here  Herodotos  read  his  wonderful  history  to  appre- 
ciative audiences.  Here  the  proud  and  invincible 
sophist  Gorgias  appeared  in  his  most  gorgeous  aca- 
demic gown  and  showed  the  eminence  of  his  rhetorical 
art  by  demonstrative  harangues. 

These  contests,  although  beginning  from  uncouth 
physical  acts  of  rivalry,  finally  became  worthy  of  the 
Hellenic  spirit  and  Hellenic  culture.  Originally  they 
were  accidental  performances  attached  as  an  appendage 
to  the  religious  rites  that  were  panegyrically  celebrated 
at  the  altars  here.  But  in  the  height  of  the  classic 
period,  the  contests  had  become  more  widely  known 
and  more  nationally  important  than  the  cults  which 
occasioned  them.  What  more  essentially  contributed 
to  the  development  and  fame  of  such  contests  as  these 
was  the  fact  that  the  training  of  the  body  by  means 
of  gymnic  exercises  always  continued  to  be  an  integral 
part  of  Hellenic  education.  A  healthy  and  well-de- 
veloped body  was  the  natural  desire  of  every  Greek. 
But  the  body  which  the  Greeks  developed  was  the 
ensouled  body,  the  incarnate  spirit,  rather  than  the 
mere  muscles  and  sinews  and  limbs.  The  teachers 
who  instructed  the  young  men  in  the  art  of  perfecting 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  225 

their  corporeal  structure  also  taught  them  simul- 
taneously the  laws  of  good  deportment,  both  of  body 
and  of  soul,  respect  for  parental  and  civic  authority, 
patriotic  love  of  country  and  willing  readiness  to  de- 
fend it,  emulous  esteem  for  the  chivalrous  deeds  of 
their  mythic  ancestors,  and  reverence  for  their  homes 
and  hearth-gods,  and  native  religion.  In  a  word  many 
of  those  best  virtues  which  today  are  taught  by  taking 
the  "humanities"  as  a  starting-point  and  occasion  were 
then  taught  well  and  nobly  by  taking  the  gymnic  train- 
ing of  the  body  as  the  basic  lesson. 

The  Olympic  contests  took  place  every  four  years. 
They  were  events  too  official  and  grand  for  more  fre- 
quent occurrence.  On  the  approach  of  the  season  for 
the  commencement  of  the  contests,  olive-crowned 
heralds  were  sent  forth  to  all  Hellenic  lands  to  pro- 
claim the  holy  truce.  All  wars  and  hostile  strife  were 
suspended.  From  every  noted  city  of  Hellendom  the 
noble  devotees  traveled  across  mountain  and  sea  to 
the  Olympic  shrines.  Men  who  a  month  previously 
had  been  antagonists  in  opposite  hostile  armies  here 
contended  against  each  other  in  even  manlier  valor, 
or  sat  side  by  side  as  they  watched  and  cheered  each 
his  favorite  champion  or  landsman.  None  save  free- 
born  Greeks  of  pure  descent  might  witness  these 
sacred  trials  of  manliness  or  take  a  part  therein.  This 
was  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  phyletic  pride.  An 
ancient  king  of  Makedon  had  to  show  that  the  myths 
traced  his  origin  to  a  pure  Hellenic  root  before  he  was 
allowed  the  freedom  of  Olympia.  When  the  Greeks 
ceased  to  be  free  and  independent,  then  their  con- 
querors the  Romans  took  part  here.  Appearances  were 


226  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

saved,  however,  by  placing  proper  emphasis  on  the 
mythic  traditions  which  taught  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Rome  were  the  offspring  of  Greek  colonizers.  Such 
honorific  myths  were  not  unacceptable  even  to  the 
Romans.  The  noblest  Latin  felt  his  glory  increased 
by  permitted  participation  in  these  gymnic  rites.  Nero 
the  royal  maniac,  on  his  mad  tour  through  Greece,  en- 
rolled himself  as  contestant  in  the  Olympic  games.  He 
personally  attempted  to  drive  in  the  hippodrome  his 
gilded  chariot,  harnessed  to  ten  young  horses.  He 
tumbled  out;  but  after  a  second  attempt  and  second 
fall,  he  was  carried  victoriously  off  the  field,  and 
received  the  prize.  Despite  the  folly  of  this  exceptional 
man  and  the  criminality  of  those  who  awarded  him 
four  crowns  of  victory  at  the  Olympic  contests,  the 
games  continued  to  be  both  respected  and  prized  by 
all  who  under  the  broad  title  of  "Roman"  might 
participate.  Finally  Olympia  became  free  to  every 
"Roman,"  that  is,  to  every  Hellenized  and  free-born 
citizen  whom  the^Latin  imperial  government  acknowl- 
edged. Thus  the  last  man  whose  name  graces  the 
long  list  of  Olympic  victories,  the  list  which  is  authen- 
tic back  to  776  years  before  Christ,  was  a  native  of 
Armenia.  His  unhellenic  name  was  Varaztad.  A 
Roman  was  this  Varaztad,  like  all  other  men  who  had 
accepted  the  civilization  of  Athens  and  the  empire  of 
the  Caesars. 

But  the  wideness  of  the  empire  and  its  troubles  were 
not  favorable  to  such  panegyrics  as  those  of  Olympia. 
Besides,  the  new  and  holier  religion,  which  had  begun 
gloriously  to  triumph,  was  not  in  full  sympathy  with 
Olympiac  rites,  for  they  were  connected  with  heathen 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  227 

traditions.  In  the  time  of  Hadrian  the  games  were 
still  in  good  repute.  But  after  him  the  prestige  of  the 
fete  began  to  diminish.  The  celebrations  still  attracted 
multitudes ;  but  they  came  rather  through  curiosity  and 
the  desire  of  making  a  pleasant  excursion.  Their  piety 
was  gone.  They  no  longer  understood  the  gymnic 
art  as  a  part  of  humanistic  education.  In  fact  educa- 
tion itself  was  falling  into  neglect.  Such  as  were 
Christians  had  chosen  a  higher  cult  than  the  Olympian. 
Such  as  still  were  pagan  were  irreverent  and  dis- 
respectful. The  past  no  longer  charmed  them.  They 
had  become  "practical."  The  contests  were  held  for 
the  last  time  in  the  year  393.  In  the  following  year 
Theodosios  the  emperor  abolished  them  by  a  royal 
decree.  And  in  the  year  426,  Theodosios  the  Second 
issued  an  edict  against  all  the  temples  and  shrines  of 
the  old  gods.  The  sacred  Grove  of  Olympia  with  its 
temples  was  afterward  burned  by  fire.  Then  a  small 
community  of  Christians  settled  among  the  ruins,  and 
erected  a  beautiful  church  whose  foundations  still  can 
be  seen.  These  in  turn  gave  way  to  a  tribe  of  shep- 
herds who  built  their  cabins  on  the  top  of  their  prede- 
cessors' ruins.  Then  some  tribes  from  the  far  north, 
from  the  steppes  of  Russia,  wandered  into  this  holy 
precinct  and  built  their  huts  in  the  Altis.  The  jargon 
of  Slavonian  herdsmen  was  heard  at  the  foot  of 
Kronos  hill.  But  they  also  disappeared.  Long  after 
them,  the  Prankish  knights,  the  chivalrous  conquerors 
of  the  Morea,  became  acquainted  with  this  beautiful 
spot  and  placed  a  castle  here.  They,  too,  disappeared. 
Then  all  grew  still.  The  place  was  deserted,  and  the 


228  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Kladaos  began  to  entomb  the  glorious  ruins  in  beds  of 
sand. 

The  various  contests  were  not  all  instituted  at  once, 
naturally.  According  to  common  repute,  the  most 
ancient  prize  had  been  given  as  a  reward  for  running. 
Finally,  contests  were  sufficiently  numerous  to  cover 
a  period  of  five  days,  including  the  preparatory  and 
closing  exercises.  They  took  place  in  early  autumn, 
or  toward  the  end  of  summer.  The  rites  and  sports 
were  such  as  men  only  were  expected  to  enjoy.  This 
opinion  was  made  a  law  of  strict  enjoinment.  No 
married  woman  was  allowed  within  the  sacred  region 
during  the  time  appointed  for  the  games.  It  is  not 
certain  to  us  that  this  prohibition  extended  to  un- 
married girls.  But  the  number  of  maidens  that  would 
have  taken  advantage  of  such  liberty,  if  conceded  to 
them,  must  have  been  comparatively  small.  Those 
from  Elis  and  other  near  towns  might  possibly  have 
gone  there  occasionally  with  their  fathers  or  brothers. 
On  the  statutes  was  a  decree  enjoining  that  if  a  woman 
were  ever  found  present  at  the  games  she  should  be 
hurled  to  death  from  the  top  of  the  neighboring  Ty- 
pseon  Mount.  The  priestess  of  Demeter,  however, 
might  always  assist.  She  was  the  only  exception. 
Only  once  was  this  ordinance  against  women  violated. 
For  the  sake  of  her  son  who  had  no  other  reliable 
friend  to  direct  him,  Kallipateira  disguised  herself  as 
a  man  and  entered  the  holy  precincts.  But  when  her 
son  gloriously  won,  she  showed  her  exultation  in  such 
a  profuse  way  as  to  reveal  her  motherly  pride  and  her 
womanliness.  In  her  case,  however,  the  stern  law 
was  not  enforced,  for  the  judges  recalled  the  fact  that 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  229 

her  father,  the  famous  Diagoras,  had  formerly  been 
several  times  crowned  with  the  sacred  wreaths,  and 
that  likewise  her  brothers,  and  now  her  son  had  won. 
She  was  not  thrown  from  the  Typseon  Mount.  No 
other  woman  ever  risked  the  danger. 

Each  day  the  contests  were  preceded  by  religious 
processions  and  sacrifices  to  the  gods.  On  the  first  day 
Zevs  was  propitiated  by  a  mighty  hecatomb  of  bulls. 
Other  sacrifices  likewise  pompous  were  performed  at 
the  altars  of  the  other  gods.  Then  the  judges  and 
trainers  and  contestants  all  went  to  an  altar  which 
stood  within  the  senate-house,  and  there  each  one 
uttered  the  oath  prescribed.  The  contestants  stated 
in  oath  that  they  had  conscientiously  prepared  them- 
selves for  their  respective  trials  of  skill  by  a  scientific 
training  of  ten  months ;  that  they  were  not  under  any 
thraldom  but  were  free  Greeks;  and  that  they  were 
not  deprived  in  any  way  of  their  political  rights.  They 
also  promised  to  contend  justly  and  according  to  the 
regulations  of  the  contests. 

The  second,  third,  and  fourth  days  were  occupied 
with  the  various  contests.  Of  the  different  successive 
feats  of  skill  and  manliness,  the  series  that  constituted 
the  "pentathlon"  was  the  most  highly  esteemed,  because 
the  feats  of  the  pentathlon  were  a  series  of  exercises 
that  were  thought  to  require  the  activity  of  the  entire 
body  harmoniously  and  evenly  and  employ  all  the 
limbs.  The  five  constituent  exercises  of  the  pentath- 
lon were  a  run,  a  leap,  a  javelin-throw,  a  disk-throw, 
and  a  bout  at  wrestling.  The  contest  least  admired 
was  that  of  boxing.  Witty  and  sarcastic  are  the 
numerous  epigrams  in  verse  that  have  been  preserved 


230  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

describing  the  mutilated  faces  and  unrecognizable 
features  of  the  victorious  pugilists,  some  of  whom 
were  so  badly  different  from  their  former  appearance 
as  to  frighten  their  own  dogs  when  they  returned 
home.  But  the  pugilists  were  plucky,  however ;  and  it 
is  related  of  Evrydamas  that  when  his  antagonist 
struck  him  in  the  mouth  and  broke  off  his  teeth  he 
purposely  swallowed  them  so  that  his  antagonist  might 
not  see  his  discomfiture  and  thereby  gain  greater  con- 
fidence. 

The  most  stupendous  spectacle  was  that  of  the 
chariot-races.  These  took  place  on  the  fourth  day. 
The  prize  for  the  race  went  not  to  the  charioteer  but  to 
the  owner  of  the  outfit.  Even  women  were  allowed 
to  send  chariots  and  contend  by  proxy.  Agesilaos, 
the  king  of  Sparta,  in  order  to  prove  that  no  virtue  of 
a  manly  kind  was  required  for  the  acquisition  of  this 
crown,  persuaded  his  sister  Kyniska  to  send  a  chariot 
and  steeds  to  Olympia.  She  did  so,  and  won.  Each 
chariot  was  drawn  by  four  horses.  Quite  a  number 
of  chariots  might  contend  at  once.  Sophokles  de- 
scribes such  a  race  at  Delphi,  wherein  ten  chariots  dash 
over  the  sands  of  the  hippodrome  at  once.  Pindar  in 
one  of  his  grand  odes  mentions  forty-one  chariots  as 
participating,  but  of  course  not  all  at  once.  Accidents 
were  naturally  numerous,  and  not  all  who  fell  were  so 
fortunate  as  Nero. 

On  the  last  day  of  this  quinquidial  festival,  the 
crowns  were  awarded,  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  were 
offered  to  Zevs  and  the  other  gods,  the  various  official 
embassies  from  the  different  Greek  cities  organized 
pompous  processions  in  honor  of  their  prize-crowned 


THE  GAMES  AT  OLYMPIA  231 

townsmen,  banquets  were  given  to  the  victors,  and 
songs  were  sung  in  their  praise.  The  crowns  were 
made  of  boughs  all  from  a  special  holy  tree  which 
grew  within  the  precinct  of  the  Altis,  near  the  great 
fane  of  Zevs.  The  tree  was  a  wild  olive,  which, 
according  to  the  legend,  was  brought  to  Olympia  by 
Herakles  from  the  distant  land  of  the  Hyperboreans. 
The  branches  were  cut  from  the  tree  by  a  boy  both 
of  whose  parents  should  be  living,  using  a  golden 
knife.  Each  victor  heard  his  name  sung  out  by  the 
herald,  who  added  the  name  of  the  victor's  father  and 
his  natal  town.  He  walked  up  to  the  table  of  gold  and 
ivory  where  the  crowns  were  resting,  and  the  oldest  of 
the  judges  placed  the  olive  wreath  on  the  victor's  head. 
After  the  sacrifices  of  thanksgiving,  after  the  feasts 
and  songs  and  carousals  were  ended,  then  the  victors 
went  home  escorted  by  their  proud  townsmen.  The 
greatest  poets  composed  their  best  cantatas  in  their 
honor.  Pindar's  unequaled  odes  are  nearly  all 
written  to  exalt  the  praises  of  victorious  contestants 
at  the  various  great  games.  Simonides  and  Evripides 
used  their  best  skill  for  the  same  purpose.  The  return- 
ing victors  often  re-entered  their  native  town  drawn 
in  a  chariot  by  four  white  steeds,  and  not  through  one 
of  the  gates  of  the  walled  city,  but  through  a  breach 
intentionally  made,  to  teach  the  belief  that  a  city  need 
have  no  strong  walls  when  it  has  Olympian  victors 
among  the  citizens  that  are  ever  ready  to  defend  it. 
The  victors  might,  if  they  desired,  erect  a  commemora- 
tive statue  in  Olympia.  Their  crowns  they  dedicated  to 
the  deities  of  their  native  town.  When  Exaenetos 
came  back  to  Akragas  after  his  victory  at  Olympia  in 


232  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  year  412,  his  fellow-citizens  escorted  him  into  the 
city  in  a  chariot  with  three  hundred  spans  of  white 
steeds.  But  the  hero  most  highly  honored  in  antiquity 
was  Diagoras,  who  had  won  victories  at  the  four 
great  shrines,  at  Delphi  and  Korinth  and  Nemea,  as 
well  as  here.  Pindar's  ode  in  honor  of  Diagoras  was 
copied  in  letters  of  gold  and  dedicated  in  a  temple  of 
Athena  in  the  native  town  of  Diagoras,  in  Lindos  of 
Rhodes.  According  to  the  notion  of  every  Greek,  the 
fanatical  Lakonian  spoke  the  truth  when  on  seeing 
Diagoras  borne  triumphantly  on  the  shoulders  of  his 
two  sons  at  Olympia,  who  also  were  crowned  victors, 
uttered  an  exclamation  which  conveyed  the  meaning 
that  Diagoras  could  not  receive  honors  any  higher  than 
these,  save  that  of  becoming  a  god. 


THE  PJLEAKS'  ISLAND 

Kerkyra  is  the  great  entrance  gate  to  Greece  and 
the  near  East.  A  never-ceasing  stream  of  tourists 
and  other  travelers  passes  by  Kerkyra  year  after  year 
from  all  parts  of  Europe  on  their  way  to  the  many 
places  of  historic  interest  on  the  shores  of  the  eastern 
Mediterranean. 

Kerkyra  is  not  simply  the  first  stopping-place  for 
voyagers  to  the  Levant ;  its  attractions  are  among  those 
that  may  possibly  have  strongest  claim  on  the  pleasure 
seeker,  or  the  historian,  or  the  antiquarian,  and  may 
entice  him  into  prolonging  his  stay  on  the  island. 

Of  the  English  tourists  who  visit  Kerkyra  for  a 
brief  stay,  a  good  proportion  consists  of  men  who 
come  down  and  make  their  headquarters  here  in  order 
to  hunt  wild  game  in  the  Albanian  and  Akrokeravnian 
mountains,  which  lie  just  opposite  along  the  coast  of 
Epeiros,  and  form  the  eastern  horizon  to  the  bay  of 
Kerkyra. 

This  Kerkyra  is  an  island  lying  in  the  Ionian  Sea,  a 
few  miles  west  of  Albania,  and  ten  hours  by  steamship 
east  of  Brindisi.  It  is  the  northernmost  of  all  the 
Ionian  group.  Like  its  Ionian  sisters,  it  first  became 
familiarly  known  to  northern  readers  through  the  war- 
news  in  the  time  of  Napoleon.  Up  to  1797  Kerkyra 
constituted  a  most  valuable  portion  of  the  possessions 
of  the  great  republic  of  Venice.  But  in  that  year  it 
was  captured  by  the  French,  shortly  after  the  young 
Napoleon  had  forever  abolished  the  aristocratic  gov- 

233 


234  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

ernment  of  the  doges.  From  1807  to  1814  it  consti- 
tuted a  portion  of  the  empire  created  by  Napoleon. 
Kerkyra  may  always  be  mentioned  with  honor  in 
connection  with  the  stirring  events  that  group  them- 
selves around  the  career  of  this  conqueror.  For  of 
all  the  heroic  and  unusual  acts  of  war  which  glorified 
that  first  empire,  the  grimly  unyielding  bravery  of  the 
imperial  garrison  of  Kerkyra  is  one  of  the  most 
admirable.  In  the  wars  between  the  French  and  the 
other  powers,  this  garrison  held  out  for  six  entire 
years,  against  an  English  blockade.  General  Donze- 
let,  who  commanded  here,  and  who  for  these  six  years 
had  been  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  the 
mother  country,  agreed  to  abandon  the  defense  only 
after  he  had  learned  from  the  blockaders  that  his 
emperor  for  whom  he  was  fighting  had  been  deposed 
by  the  treaty  of  Paris,  and  that  Kerkyra  had  by  that 
same  treaty  become  an  English  possession.  The 
English,  who  sometimes  know  how  to  appreciate  a 
hero,  sent  Donzelot  with  honors  back  to  France. 

The  island  is  long  and  narrow.  From  its  northern- 
most point  to  its  southernmost,  the  distance  is  about 
35  English  miles.  Its  population  is  about  eighty 
thousand.  It  is  dotted  with  small  white  towns,  inter- 
esting and  pretty,  as  they  stand  out  on  the  hill-slopes 
and  mountain  sides,  among  the  vineyards  and  olive 
groves.  The  chief  city  and  capital,  which  bears  the 
same  name  as  the  island,  is  situated  on  the  eastern 
shore,  on  the  bay  and  narrows  that  separate  the  island 
from  Albania. 

In  appearance  this  town  is  not  unlike  other  towns 
of  the  Ionian  group.  Its  general  aspect  is  Italian. 


THE  PH^AKS'  ISLAND  235 

This  is  not  strange;  the  Venetians  held  it  for  four 
hundred  years.  Were  it  not  for  the  eternal  unchange- 
ableness  of  the  oriental  peoples,  they  would  long  ago 
have  become  out  and  out  Venetians.  East  of  the 
town,  a  narrow  tongue  of  high  rock  juts  out  one  hun- 
dred yards  into  the  sea.  This  rock  has  for  centuries 
been  the  site  of  the  chief  defenses  of  the  town.  It 
still  bears  its  Venetian  name  of  Fortezza  Vecchia, 
but  now  serves  only  as  a  military  storehouse  and 
military  school. 

From  the  top  of  this  old  fortress-covered  rock,  the 
view  is  grand.  With  the  telescope  of  the  watchman, 
who  willingly  offers  it  in  order  to  receive  a  few  soldi 
in  return,  one  can  trace  the  line  of  snow-capped  Al- 
banian mountains  indefinitely  far.  Hagioi  Saranta  or 
the  town  of  the  "Forty  Saints,"  which  the  Greek 
fleet  shot  into  during  the  war  of  1897,  can  be  seen,  and 
the  dismantled  houses  easily  distinguished.  Beneath 
one's  feet  lies  the  entire  city  of  Kerkyra,  with  its  high 
Venetian  edifices,  showing  off  their  white  walls  and 
green  window  shutters.  The  Venetians  fearlessly 
built  their  houses  three  and  four,  and  even  five  stories 
high  in  Kerkyra,  because  fortunately  the  island  lies 
just  north  of  the  usual  earthquake  region.  Not  only 
do  the  Venetian  houses,  some  of  which  still  retain 
the  romantic  jalousie  windows,  recall  the  rule  and  in- 
fluence of  the  proud  old  government  of  the  doges,  but 
everywhere,  on  the  ramparts  of  the  fortifications,  over 
various  gates  and  doors,  and  in  many  other  public 
places,  may  still  be  seen  sculptured  in  stone  the  lion 
of  St.  Mark,  holding  with  his  forepaws  the  gospel  of 
the  patron  apostle  of  Venice.  This  ensign  of  the 


236  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

queen  of  the  Adriatic  may  be  seen  wherever  she  set  her 
authority.  But  many  of  these  lions  were  mutilated, 
if  not  entirely  chiseled  away,  by  the  French  repub- 
licans, who  in  1797  took  possession  of  Kerkyra.  Since 
these  lions  were  the  symbols  of  an  aristocratic,  if  not 
also  tyrannic  power,  the  victorious  Frenchmen,  who  in 
the  public  square  of  the  city  had  planted  the  tree  of 
liberty,  could  not  indifferently  behold  the  mediaeval 
lions  frowning  and  grinning  at  them  from  the  ancient 
bastions. 

The  Fortezza  Vecchia  is  separated  from  the  town 
proper  by  a  large  open  square,  not  smaller,  and  for 
the  Kerkyrseans  not  less  important,  than  the  champ-de- 
Mars  of  Paris.  Along  the  west  side  of  this  esplanade 
stand  the  high  Venetian  houses  of  the  city,  and  on 
the  eastern  side  is  a  water-filled  moat  which  is  crossed 
by  an  arched  bridge,  that  connects  the  esplanade  and 
the  fortress.  At  the  north  extremity  of  this  esplanade 
is  a  huge  building  erected  by  the  English  as  a  dwelling 
for  the  Lord  High  Commissioner,  who,  during  the 
English  protectorate  over  the  islands,  from  1815  to 
1864,  represented  England  here.  It  was  also  the 
place  of  meeting  for  the  Ionian  senate,  which  then 
legislated  for  the  Ionian  states,  of  which  Kerkyra  was 
the  capital.  The  palace  is  now  merely  an  array  of 
deserted  halls.  It  is  a  cold  and  unsympathetic,  heart- 
less structure,  built  of  gray  stone  brought  here  from 
the  island  of  Malta.  Perhaps  few  strangers  ever 
visit  it,  except  the  archaeologists  who  go  there  to  see 
an  ancient  marble  lioness,  perhaps  as  old  as  those  that 
guard  the  entrance  to  the  fortress  of  Homeric  Mykenae, 
and  as  curious. 


THE  PH^AKS'  ISLAND  237 

This  lioness  was  found  in  1843,  in  one  of  the 
suburbs  south  of  the  town,  in  a  place  which  must  have 
been  a  cemetery  more  than  3,000  years  ago.  Near  to 
where  the  lioness  was  found,  there  is  still  to  be  seen 
one  of  the  ancient  tombs  of  this  ancient  burial-place. 
It  is  a  round,  solid  mass  of  masonry,  about  ten  feet  in 
diameter,  and  about  six  feet  high,  built  of  stones  care- 
fully hewn  and  neatly  fitted  together.  Round  the 
upper  edge  of  the  circular  outside  wall  is  engraved 
the  inscription  in  old  Doric  dialect,  written  more  than 
five  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and 
stating  that  the  tomb  was  erected  in  memory  of  a 
certain  Menekrates,  who  had  been  drowned  in  the  sea. 
He  lived  in  Kerkyra  as  consul  to  that  city  from  the 
commonwealth  of  Eantheia  in  Greece.  And  the  monu- 
ment was  erected  to  him  by  his  brother. 

By  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1814,  Kerkyra,  with  the 
other  Ionian  Islands,  was  declared  to  be  free,  but 
under  the  protection  of  England.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  she  became  an  English  possession  out  and  out. 
Such  did  the  Ionian  Islands  remain  until  1864,  when 
in  a  moment  of  unavoidable  generosity,  created  in  part 
by  Gladstone,  England  freely  yielded  to  the  desire  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  presented  Kerkyra  with  all  the 
other  Ionian  Islands  to  the  kingdom  of  Greece.  But 
while  England  held  Kerkyra,  she  took  excellent  care 
of  it,  proving  herself  here  as  elsewhere  to  be  a  proud 
and  relentless  mistress  indeed,  but  nevertheless  suffi- 
ciently just,  as  matters  go.  She  interested  herself  in 
the  generalization  of  education — chiefly  in  that  of 
elementary  instruction,  without,  however,  neglecting 
the  importance  of  providing  for  higher  training.  She 


238  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

it  was  who  founded  the  academy,  usually  known  as  the 
"University  of  Kerkyra."  This  university,  the  first 
modern  institution  of  higher  learning  destined  for 
students  of  the  Greek  race,  and  the  forerunner  of  the 
present  National  Hellenic  University  of  Athens,  was 
quite  complete,  and  in  it  were  educated  many  men  who 
afterward  proved  useful  for  the  new  State  of  Greece. 
Higher  education  at  their  own  door,  such  as  the 
English  furnished,  was  a  marvelous  novelty  to  the  in- 
habitants of  Kerkyra.  During  the  four  hundred  years 
of  vassalage  to  Venice,  such  luxury  was  not  to  be 
thought  of.  Venice  took  good  care  that  her  leading 
citizens  and  subjects  be  educated,  if  at  all,  either  in  the 
schools  of  Venice  itself,  or  in  the  University  of  Padua, 
in  order  that  no  spirit  of  separation  might  be  bred 
into  them.  The  regulations  of  Venice  forbidding 
citizens  from  sending  their  children  to  schools  not 
recognized  by  the  government  of  the  doge,  especially 
to  Jesuit  schools,  applied  also  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Kerkyra,  whether  Catholic  or  Greek. 

After  Kerkyra  became  a  portion  of  the  Greek  king- 
dom, the  Ionian  university  was  closed,  in  conformity 
with  the  destructive  tendency  of  the  Greek  govern- 
ment to  concentrate  all  power  and  influence  at  Athens. 
And  now  the  only  successor  in  Kerkyra  to  the  old 
university  is  the  public  gymnasium  or  national  college. 
It  still  contains  the  excellent  library  of  forty  thousand 
volumes  which  the  English  gathered  for  the  university, 
and  which  is  now  one  of  the  most  important  collections 
of  books  in  all  of  Greece. 

Up  to  the  coming  of  the  French  in  1797,  the  Kerky- 
rseans  like  their  masters,  the  Venetians,  were  divided 


THE  PHyEAKS'  ISLAND  239 

into  three  classes;  the  nobles,  the  citizens,  and  the 
populace.  The  nobles  were  of  a  mixed  breed,  being, 
however,  chiefly  Venetians  and  Greeks.  The  citizens 
were  likewise  a  mixture  of  both  these  elements,  with 
a  preponderance  of  the  Greek;  while  the  "popolani" 
were  quite  pure  Greek,  with  but  a  slight  admixture  of 
Italian,  and  perhaps,  Albanian  blood. 

Of  these  three  classes  each  wore  a  special  style  of 
dress,  distinguishing  the  social  condition  of  the  wearer. 
The  French  republicans,  notwithstanding  all  the  abuses 
and  excesses  they  occasioned,  conferred  the  lasting 
benefit  of  contributing  to  the  perpetual  abolition  of 
the  dress-distinction  between  the  social  castes  here. 
Since  that  time,  the  two  upper  classes,  no  longer 
having  a  recognized  separate  existence,  abandoned 
their  distinguishing  habiliments  and  took  to  wearing 
the  ordinary  costumes  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  The 
"people,"  however,  who  change  less  readily,  have  not 
yet  entirely  given  up  their  mediaeval  styles,  and  es- 
pecially the  women  in  the  more  distant  villages  can 
yet  be  seen  wearing  them.  This  dress  is  noticeable, 
like  ancient  styles  in  many  other  places,  from  the  fact 
that  much  use  is  made  of  color  and  demonstrative 
decoration,  and  embroidery.  The  material  is  heavy 
and  costly.  A  woman's  outfit  once  made  used  to  be 
worn  by  her  on  all  important  occasions  from  the  day 
of  her  marriage  to  her  old  age,  and  was  then  be- 
queathed to  her  daughter  to  wear  likewise  for  her  life- 
time. 

These  ancient  highly  decorated  dresses  of  the 
women  of  Kerkyra  can  be  seen  chiefly  on  popular 
feast  days,  when  the  peasants  gather  round  some 


240  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

church,  whose  saint's  birth  or  death  is  being  com- 
memorated. There  they  perform  their  ancient  dances, 
sing  their  ancient  songs,  and  show  off  their  rich 
dresses,  to  attract  some  suitor  from  their  townsmen. 
It  is  an  attractive  dress  when  worn  by  an  attractive 
Korphiotissa.  But,  unfortunately,  the  unfavorable 
circumstances  in  which  most  of  the  women  of  this  class 
have  to  live,  in  toil  and  privation,  does  not  allow  the 
development  and  charm  of  womanliness  that  one 
would  like  to  see.  Nevertheless,  there  are  wonderful 
exceptions.  At  times  one  sees  forms  that  can  be 
matched  only  in  the  statues  of  classic  antiquity.  Es- 
pecially are  such  to  be  seen  occasionally  in  the  two 
towns  of  Gastouri  and  Benizze.  Gastouri  is  merely  a 
collection  of  peasants'  hovels  in  a  lovely  region  near' 
which  the  empress  Elizabeth  built  her  country  palace. 
Benizze  is  a  fishers'  village  on  the  bay,  near  which 
fresh  springs  tumble  their  waters  into  the  sea,  and 
round  which  the  best  oranges  of  Kerkyra  grow. 
Benizze  is  a  perfect  picture  of  southern  country 
luxuriousness. 

Benizze  is  a  favorite  place  of  resort  for  the  stray 
tourist.  But  it  is  not  the  only  compensating  excur- 
sion beyond  the  suburbs  of  the  capital.  Of  these 
excursions  I  mention  only  the  longest  one,  that  to 
Monte  San  Salvatore.  San  Salvatore,  or  as  it  is 
now  better  known  by  its  Greek  name,  Mount  Pan- 
tokrator,  is  a  fine  lookout  three  thousand  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
island.  A  mountain  which  lifts  itself  no  higher  than 
three  thousand  feet  is  usually  not  a  very  wonderful 
object.  But  the  Pantokrator  rises  on  three  sides  right 


THE  PH^AKS'  ISLAND  241 

out  of  the  sea.  No  gently  ascending  slopes  for  miles 
and  miles  insensibly  absorb  a  portion  of  this  height. 
While  an  inland  mountain  of  this  height  might  not  be 
really  many  hundred  feet  taller  than  the  surrounding 
hills  and  vales,  this  sea-shore  giant  shows  every 
foot  of  his  stature  from  his  base  at  the  water's  edge 
to  his  rock-crowned  head. 

To  make  the  ascent  of  the  Pantokrator  is  not  so 
toilsome  an  undertaking  despite  the  mountain's  height. 
On  August  6  of  every  year,  when  the  small  monastery 
which  nestles  on  the  summit  celebrates  its  feast-day, 
the  paths  and  top  of  the  mountain  are  covered  with 
pilgrims.  Whoever  makes  the  ascent  at  any  other 
time  must  have  a  good  guide.  The  entire  island  of 
Kerkyra  is  only  a  portion  of  the  panorama  that  lies 
round  the  feet  of  the  beholder.  In  favorable  weather, 
afar  off  to  the  northwest,  the  dim  coast  of  Italy,  more 
than  one  hundred  miles  distant,  can  be  descried  here 
and  there  from  Otranto  to  Monte  Gargano.  To  the 
east,  measureless  tracts  of  mountain  and  valley  in 
Albania  and  Epeiros  lie  spread  out  in  wild  grandeur 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

No  one  who  visits  this  island  can  separate  in  his 
imagination  this  Kerkyra  of  today  from  the  mytho- 
logic  Kerkyra  of  the  past.  Kerkyra  recalls  to  us 
Homer  and  his  immortal  poems.  Tradition,  which 
loves  to  localize  favorite  stories,  asserts  that  this 
island  was  the  home  of  the  Phseaks,  and  therefore  the 
scene  of  much  that  is  beautiful  in  the  Odyssey  of 
Homer.  Homer  relates  that  when  Odyssevs  started 
back  to  his  home  in  Ithaka,  after  his  associates  and 
he  had  by  a  ten  years'  siege  destroyed  the  mighty  city 


242  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

of  Troy  in  Asia  Minor,  he  was  driven  hither  and 
thither  in  the  sea,  and,  after  all  of  his  companions 
had  perished,  was  thrown  shipwrecked  on  an  island 
belonging  to  the  nymph  Kalypso,  who  long  kept  him 
a  captive,  so  that  only  after  twenty  years  of  absence 
from  his  family,  did  he  finally  reach  his  Ithaka. 
Among  the  other  places  which  he  came  to  during  his 
wanderings  homeward,  was  this  country  of  the 
Phaeaks,  where  he  met  with  unwonted  hospitality.  He 
was  washed  ashore  by  the  waves  after  the  raft  which 
bore  him  hither  from  Kalypso's  isle  had  been  wrecked 
by  the  storm-god  Poseidon.  The  Phseaks  clothed  and 
feasted  him  and  loaded  him  with  princely  gifts,  and 
provided  a  crew  and  ship  to  convey  him  on  to  Ithaka. 
The  Phaeak  seamen  swiftly  bore  Odyssevs  over  the 
waves  to  his  home,  but  after  leaving  him  on  his  native 
soil,  they,  in  returning  to  their  own  island,  were 
destroyed  by  the  grudgeful  Poseidon,  who  did  not 
wish  Odyssevs  to  have  obtained  their  hospitality  and 
assistance  on  the  sea.  Their  ship  he  turned  into  a 
rock  as  it  was  about  to  re-enter  their  harbor  after 
its  voyage  with  Odyssevs  to  Ithaka. 

Tradition  has  not  forgotten  these  myths  nor  has 
it  forgotten  to  find  a  localization  for  each  and  every 
one  of  them.  The  island  where  the  goddess  Kalypso 
kept  Odyssevs  a  prisoner  for  so  many  years,  is  pointed 
out  from  the  top  of  the  Pantokrator,  and  may  be  seen 
lying  innocently  in  the  blue  water  northwest  of  Ker- 
kyra,  being  one  of  the  group  of  the  so-called 
Othonian  Islets. 

The  prettiest  place  associated  with  the  mythological 
topography  is  the  petrified  ship.  The  harbor  of  the 


THE  PHyEAKS'  ISLAND  243 

ancient  city  of  Kerkyra  was  not  identical  with  the 
modern  one,  but  lay  about  half  an  hour's  walk  to  the 
south  from  the  modern  city,  and  is  now  called  the 
"Lake  of  Kalichiopoulo."  With  time  it  has  become 
filled  with  silt,  and  now  cannot  be  entered  except  by 
flat  canoes.  In  the  deeper  water  at  its  mouth  is  a 
small  island  not  more  than  one  hundred  feet  in  diam- 
eter, a  soil-covered  rock  about  fifty  feet  high,  with 
a  little  Byzantine  church  on  the  top,  and  planted  thick 
with  ten  or  twelve  high  cypress  trees.  The  peasants 
call  it  Pontiko  Nesi  or  "Mouse  Island,"  possibly  on 
account  of  its  diminutiveness.  But  every  Kerkyraean 
who  has  heard  of  Odyssevs  will  gravely  bring  you  to 
a  promontory  called  "the  One-Gun-Battery,"  overlook- 
ing the  ancient  harbor  and  island,  and  show  you 
Pontico  Nesi  as  the  petrified  ship  of  Odyssevs.  It  is 
also  called  "Monk-Island,"  from  the  fact  that  one  or 
two  caloyers  live  in  a  hut  by  the  little  church,  of  which 
they  have  the  care.  On  the  walls  of  this  chapel  are 
two  bilingual  inscriptions,  in  Greek  and  Italian,  com- 
memorative of  visits  to  the  island  by  the  empress 
Elizabeth  of  Austria  and  her  son,  the  Archduke 
Rudolf. 

The  One-Gun-Battery  lies  on  the  north  side  of  the 
mouth  of  the  ancient  harbor.  And  just  opposite  it, 
on  the  south  side  of  this  entrance,  is  a  spring  of  beauti- 
ful water,  which  runs  down  in  a  small  stream  to  the 
bay.  This  spring,  mythic  tradition  has  also  identified, 
calling  it  the  fountain  of  Kressida,  where  Odyssevs 
was  cast  ashore,  and  where  he  met  Navsikaa  the  king's 
daughter,  who  had  gone  thither  with  her  attendants 


244  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

to  wash  the  royal  linen,  and  who  directed  Odyssevs 
thence  to  the  palace  of  her  father. 

To  show  how  steadfast  a  matter  tradition  is,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  show  that  tradition  may  shift  its 
localizations,  I  mention  the  fact  that  this  tradition 
about  the  petrified  ship  existed  thirteen  hundred  years 
ago,  as  firmly  as  it  does  today.  For  in  the  armies  of 
the  Byzantine  emperor  Justinian  was  the  historian 
Prokopios,  who  came  to  Kerkyra  and  there  was  shown 
the  petrified  ship.  But  it  was  then  localized  not  where 
now,  but  farther  north,  at  a  point  where  once  stood  a 
shrine  of  Zevs  Kassios,  and  which  now  is  sacred  to  the 
Panaghia  Kassiope.  Prokopios  examined  the  so-called 
petrified  ship,  and  found  that  it  was  not  genuine.  But 
he  thought  it  worth  while  to  record  the  fact  in  his 
books  on  the  Gothic  war. 

Speaking  of  the  traditions  of  the  island,  it  is  worth 
while  to  mention  another  one,  of  a  different  nature. 
One  might  think  that  the  above-mentioned  traditions 
are  kept  alive  chiefly  because  they  add  a  kind  of 
prestige  to  the  country,  and  are  a  matter  of  local  pride. 
But  what  can  be  said  about  the  following?  An  old 
English  chronicle-writer,  John  Brompton,  relating 
facts  concerning  Kerkyra  and  appertaining  to  the 
twelfth  century  states  that  on  the  coast  of  Epeiros 
just  across  from  Kerkyra  there  was  a  deserted  town 
which  was  known  to  be  the  native  village  of  Judas 
Iskariot,  the  betrayer  of  Christ.  Brompton,  although 
he  connected  the  myth  with  the  stories  about  Kerkyra, 
located  the  ill-reputed  town  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
bay.  But  the  later  Greeks,  if  not  those  contemporary 
with  Brompton,  located  it  within  the  island  of  Ker- 


THE  PJLEAKS'  ISLAND  245 

kyra.  In  the  year  1614,  the  celebrated  humanist  Pietro 
della  Valle  visited  Kerkyra,  and  among  his  notes 
which  he  published,  he  wrote: 

Here  lives  a  man  reputed  to  be  of  the  race  of  Judas.  The 
man  himself  denies  the  relationship,  and  I  do  not  know  whether 
it  be  a  fact  or  not.  But  I  do  remember  a  servant  of  ours  who 
formerly  had  resided  in  Kerkyra  affirming  that  one  of  the 
apostate's  descendants  still  existed  there,  and  that  a  house  was 
pointed  out  as  the  one  in  which  he  lived. 

This  myth  mentioned  by  Brompton  and  della  Valle 
still  exists.  There  is  in  the  island  a  small  village 
called  Skaria,  of  which  the  inhabitants  are  called 
Skariots.  And  every  peasant  today  believes  that  these 
Skariots  are  the  offspring  of  the  Skariot  or  Iskariot 
Judas.  Often,  when  a  Kerkyraean  wishes  to  cast  a 
slur  on  his  countrymen,  and  to  indicate  their  faithless- 
ness, he  says:  "Wasn't  even  Judas  one  of  us?  "  The 
tradition  is  certainly  a  peculiar  one.  It  has  not  passed 
unused.  For  the  German  novelist  Zschokke  has  woven 
it  into  his  story,  Die  Creole. 

Reliable  and  proven  history  for  Kerkyra  begins  in 
the  eighth  century  before  Christ.  At  that  time  there 
came  to  Kerkyra  a  colony  of  Korinthians  who  estab- 
lished themselves  in  the  island.  The  colony  rapidly 
grew,  and  soon  became  a  fair  rival  of  the  parent 
country.  At  last  this  rivalry  developed  into  open  war, 
a  fact  important  in  history  because  it  occasioned  the 
first  datable  naval  battle  of  which  we  have  any  record 
in  the  history  of  European  civilization.  The  battle 
was  fought  in  the  waters  of  Kerkyra,  665  years  before 
Christ,  and  the  colonists  won. 

From  that  time  Kerkyra  continuously  flourished. 


246  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

But  when  antagonism  grew  up  between  the  East  and 
the  West,  Kerkyra,  being  in  the  middle,  had  to  suffer. 
In  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  it  was  captured 
by  Agathokles,  who  came  eastward  from  Sicily,  and 
forty  years  later  it  was  captured  by  Pyrrhos  on  his 
way  west  from  Epeiros  against  Rome. 

When  Rome  began  to  take  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Greek  nations  Kerkyra  became  an  ally  of  the 
Latins,  and  at  first  gained  thereby.  But  when,  begin- 
ning with  Caesar,  that  long  series  of  civil  wars  broke 
out  in  the  Roman  empire,  Kerkyra  usually  was  an 
active  participant,  and  always  was  with  the  side 
destined  to  lose.  In  the  war  between  Caesar  and 
Pompey,  the  men  of  Kerkyra  embraced  the  cause  of 
the  latter.  After  Pompey's  forces  had  been  utterly 
routed  on  the  battle-field  of  Pharsalia,  Kerkyra  be- 
came the  rendezvous  of  his  scattered  followers.  The 
last  surviving  leaders  of  the  defenders  of  republican 
Rome  met  here  to  decide  on  future  plans.  In  the 
party  were  Cicero  and  Cato.  Cicero  returned  to  Rome 
to  crave  mercy  from  the  leader  of  the  imperialists,  but 
Cato  followed  his  defeated  chief  to  Egypt.  "Victrix 
causa  diis  placuit,  sed  victa  Catoni." 

Again  civil  war  broke  out  in  the  empire,  with 
Antony  and  Octavius  against  Brutus  and  Cassius. 
The  republican-spirited  Kerkyrseans  took  part  with 
Brutus  and  Cassius,  and  again  were  doomed  to  learn 
that  their  favorites  had  been  defeated,  at  Philippi. 

A  third  time  civil  war  raged,  when  Antony  with  his 
ally  Kleopatra  pitted  himself  against  his  former 
friend  and  companion,  Octavius.  The  Kerkyraeans 
took  sides  with  Antony.  This  time  they  did  not  escape 


THE  PH^AKS'  ISLAND  247 

without  serious  consequences.  After  the  battle  of 
Aktion,  from  which  the  ships  of  Kleopatra  took  first 
refuge  in  Kerkyra,  Octavius,  who  thus  became  grand 
commander  or  emperor  of  the  Roman  army,  punished 
them  severely  and  cruelly. 

After  the  division  of  the  Roman  world  into  two 
portions  under  Constantine  the  Great,  Kerkyra  became 
part  of  the  eastern  empire. 

When  the  crusades  began,  Kerkyra  was  again 
destined  to  be  a  position  of  importance.  It  came  into 
more  especial  notice  at  the  time  of  the  Fourth  Crusade, 
when  the  barons  who  had  gathered  at  Venice  for  a 
united  expedition  against  the  Moslem  infidel,  finding 
themselves  without  means  to  continue  their  holy  enter- 
prise, sold  their  services  to  Venice  in  order  to  raise 
funds  for  the  transporting  of  their  troops  and  the 
continuance  of  the  crusade.  Venice  set  them  against 
the  town  of  Zara  in  Dalmatia,  which  belonged  not  to 
the  Moslem,  but  to  other  Christians.  While  encamped 
at  Zara,  there  came  to  them  Alexios,  son  of  the  de- 
posed Greek  emperor  of  Constantinople.  The  barons, 
under  Venetian  pressure,  patronized  his  cause  and 
resolved  to  place  him  on  the  throne  of  Constantine. 
Kerkyra  was  appointed  to  be  the  rendezvous.  The 
Crusaders  came  to  Kerkyra  and  remained  three  weeks 
in  this  rich  and  bountiful  island.  From  here,  on  a 
bright  and  cheerful  day,  and  with  winds  that  were  soft 
and  favorable,  they  spread  their  sails  and  turned  their 
prows  toward  Constantinople.  Their  stay  in  Kerkyra 
and  their  departure  thence  is  poetically  described  in  the 
Chronicle  of  Villeharduin. 

Having  arrived  at  Constantinople  these  Crusaders 


248  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

took  possession  of  the  city  first  for  Alexios  and  then 
for  themselves  and  divided  the  city  and  its  domains. 
Kerkyra  constituted  part  of  the  allotment  given  to 
Venice.  But  Venice  did  not  finally  come  into  complete 
possession  of  Kerkyra  until  the  year  1386.  In  the 
meantime  it  was  chiefly  under  the  kings  of  Naples  and 
the  adventurers  that  represented  these  kings  in  the 
East. 

During  the  Venetian  control,  Kerkyra  flourished 
comparatively.  It  withstood  two  famous  sieges  by  the 
Turks.  The  first  of  these  took  place  in  the  year  1537. 
It  was  conducted  by  the  world-famed  janizzar  Khair 
Eddin  Barbarossa.  The  story  tells  how  the  siege  was 
long  and  terrible,  but  that  finally  the  Turks  withdrew. 
They  did  not  go  empty-handed,  however.  They  led 
off  as  slaves  thousands  of  the  inhabitants,  men,  women, 
and  children.  These  Kerkyrseans  were  brought  to 
the  market  of  Constantinople,  where  they  were  publicly 
sold  at  auction,  after  a  proclamation  was  heralded  that 
whosoever  desired  to  buy  at  a  low  price  good  Christian 
slaves  could  be  suited  in  the  Kerkyrsean  captives. 
Moustoxydes,  a  Kerkyraean  who  in  the  last  century 
was  noted  as  a  historical  investigator,  narrates  the 
following  characteristic  though  unproven  and  some- 
what inconsistent  story.  He  says  that  among  these 
ill-starred  slaves  was  one  who  afterward  became 
famous.  Kale  Kartanou  was  her  name.  She  and  her 
mother  and  brother  were  carried  off.  In  captivity  they 
were  separated,  and  no  one  knew  the  fate  of  the  others. 
Years  afterward  the  mother  was  redeemed  by  some 
Christian,  and  wandered  back  to  her  native  Kerkyra. 
The  brother  of  Kale  also  succeeded  in  gaining  his 


THE  PHvEAKS'  ISLAND  249 

liberty,  and  returned.  But  Kale  when  carried  off  was 
a  mere  child  seven  years  old.  She  was  brought  to  the 
palace  and  kept  there,  and  became  the  property  of 
Sultan  Selim,  and  the  mother  of  his  successor  on  the 
throne  of  Constantinople.  In  the  Ambrosian  library  of 
Milan  there  is  still  preserved  an  official  copy  of  a  letter 
which  was  forwarded  through  Venetian  diplomats  to 
Kale  Kartanou,  after  she  had  become  sultana,  a  letter 
from  her  mother  asking  that  the  sultana  take  her  to 
Constantinople.  Together  with  this  letter  is  preserved 
a  note  from  the  sultana,  ordering  certain  officials  to  aid 
her  mother  in  reaching  Constantinople.  We  have  no  in- 
formation as  to  whether  the  mother  actually  succeeded 
in  again  seeing  her  daughter  or  not.  The  wisdom  of 
Kale  was  regarded  as  wonderful,  and  became  prover- 
bial in  Constantinople.  Being  carried  off  so  young,  she 
did  not  keep  her  Christian  faith,  at  least  openly.  But  a 
tradition  states  that  she  baptized  her  son,  through  a 
dim  remembrance  that  it  was  proper  to  do  so.  She 
was  buried  near  the  great  mosque  of  St.  Sophia,  at  the 
command  of  Sultan  Murat,  by  the  side  of  his  father 
Selim. 

The  other  great  siege  was  that  sustained  in  1716. 
Kerkyra  was  defended  by  a  garrison  under  the  com- 
mand of  a  German  officer  in  Venetian  service,  Count 
von  Schulemburg,  brother  of  the  woman  whom 
George  the  First  of  England  made  duchess  of  Munster 
in  Ireland  and  countess  of  Kendall  in  England.  Von 
Schulemburg  armed  and  organized  all  the  men  of  the 
city,  even  the  Jews.  The  Turks  remained  for  seven 
weeks.  Then,  seeing  that  their  efforts  were  futile, 
they  sailed  away.  Venice  was  grateful  to  the  brave 


250  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  successful  German,  and  erected  a  statue  to  him  at 
the  entrance  to  the  fortress.  The  statue  is  still  in 
position.  But  to  appreciate  the  value  of  this  mark  of 
honor  to  Schulemburg,  one  must  know  that  the  Vene- 
tian government  had  but  shortly  before  ordered  that 
several  other  honorary  statues,  erected  by  the  obsequi- 
ous nobility  of  Kerkyra  to  representatives  of  the 
Venetian  government  in  the  island,  be  thrown  down. 

The  long  rule  of  the  Venetians  left  deep  and  char- 
acteristic impressions  on  the  men  and  women  of  the 
upper  classes.  In  language  most  of  all  can  the  casual 
observer  remark  this  influence.  The  two  upper  classes 
had  almost  forgotten  the  Greek  language.  They  al- 
ways conversed  in  Italian,  and  as  many  of  them  as 
could  read  and  write  wrote  in  Italian  and  read  Italian. 
But  the  language  of  the  people  remained  Greek — I 
mean  the  language  of  the  lowest  class,  the  "popolani." 
But  these  popolani  were  mere  serfs,  and  had  no  hopes 
of  ever  rising  to  a  more  comfortable  level.  Italian 
is  still  spoken  more  frequently  than  Greek,  and  more 
correctly,  among  the  older  people  of  the  better  class. 
Their  Italian  is  of  the  Venetian  dialect.  But  it  differs 
considerably  from  the  language  spoken  as  dialect  in 
Venice  today.  For  while  the  Venetians  have  greatly 
modified  their  language,  their  former  subjects,  the 
Kerkyraeans,  have  kept  the  older  Venetian  dialect  in- 
tact. In  Kerkyra  one  hears  such  language  as  might 
have  been  heard  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  in 
Venice,  but  is  now  heard  there  no  more. 

Since  the  Greek  dialect  of  Kerkyra  was  spoken 
only  by  the  lower  classes,  and  was  not  usually  taught 
in  the  few  schools  that  existed,  it  became  quite  a 


THE  PILEAKS'  ISLAND  251 

patois.  But  it  was  regarded  as  sympathetic  and  ex- 
pressive, and  especially  suited  for  light  songs  and 
serenades.  Goldoni  in  his  comedy  called  The  Family 
of  the  Antiquary,  represents  Count  Anselmo  as  having 
bought  a  Greek  manuscript,  which  he,  not  knowing 
Greek,  but  thinking  to  be  an  important  work,  shows 
to  Pantalone.  Pantalone,  as  the  play  goes,  had  lived 
in  Kerkyra,  and  had  learned  the  dialect  of  the  street 
gamins  there.  He  sees  at  a  glance  that  the  manu- 
script, which,  according  to  the  supposition  of  the  self- 
styled  antiquarian  ought  to  treat  of  a  historic  affair 
between  the  Athenians  and  Spartans,  is  really  only  a 
leaf  from  a  songbook  of  some  Kerkyraean  serenader, 
and  reads  "Mattia  mou  mattachia  mou,  cali  spera 
mattia  mou,"  which  he  translates  "vita  mia,  dolce 
vita  mia;  bona  sera,  vita  mia."  But  the  "antiquarian," 
who  is  determined  to  believe  that  it  is  a  valuable 
manuscript  of  former  ages,  snatches  it  from  its  tra- 
ducer,  asserting  that  it  is  written  in  good  old  Greek, 
but  that  Pantalone  does  not  know  how  to  read,  and 
as  a  proof  that  it  is  good,  he  says  that  he  paid  ten 
zecchini  for  it,  and  that  it  is  worth  a  hundred. 

The  upper  classes  of  the  Kerkyrseans  who  showed 
such  readiness  to  throw  off  their  language  and  habits 
and  other  national  characteristics  in  order  to  conform 
with  their  masters,  the  Venetians,  and  who  united 
with  the  Venetians  in  oppressing  their  kinsmen,  the 
serfs,  or  even  outdid  the  Venetians  in  acts  of  oppres- 
sion, drew  the  line  at  religion,  and  kept  their  own 
rites,  in  common  with  the  serfs.  They  remained  true 
to  the  eastern  church,  and  true  to  their  ancient  re- 
ligious practices.  However,  they  had  no  special 


252  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

distaste  against  the  religion  of  the  Latins,  and  did  not 
object  to  taking  part  in  the  Latin  services. 

Of  their  churches  the  most  noted  one  is  that  sacred 
to  St.  Spyridon.  This  bishop  was  one  of  the  Fathers 
who  took  part  in  the  Council  of  Nikaea.  Since  he 
lived  and  died  before  the  schism  of  the  churches,  he 
is  recognized  by  the  Latins  as  well  as  by  the  Greeks. 
And  here  in  his  cathedral  the  mixed  ceremonies,  in 
which  the  two  antagonistic  sister  churches  took  official 
part,  used  to  be  very  interesting.  Now,  however, 
since  the  Catholics  have  withdrawn,  only  Greek  serv- 
ices take  place.  The  Greeks  have  a  story  of  how  it 
thundered  and  lightened,  and  how  a  powder  magazine 
was  blown  up  when  the  Latins  for  the  last  time,  more 
than  a  century  ago,  attempted  to  erect  an  altar  in  the 
cathedral.  I  am  personally  acquainted  with  one  of 
the  most  authoritative  of  Greek  historical  researchers, 
who  lives  away  from  his  native  Kerkyra  perforce, 
because  he  had  the  temerity  to  write  a  pamphlet 
attempting  to  explain  the  blowing  up  of  the  magazine 
by  other  causes  than  the  saint's  rage. 

The  holy  relics  are  kept  in  a  magnificent  silver 
casket.  Ever  since  the  year  1630,  when,  by  the  saint's 
intercession,  a  plague  that  was  afflicting  the  city 
ceased,  his  remains  are  borne  on  his  feast  day  in 
solemn  procession  through  the  principal  streets  and 
esplanade. 

The  Kerkyrsean,  like  his  kinsmen,  the  Italians  and 
the  Hellenes,  loves  religion  indeed,  but  chiefly  loves 
the  pompous  part  of  it.  In  his  mind  religion  has  no 
more  to  do  with  morality  than  has  fishing  or  singing. 


THE  PILEAKS'  ISLAND  253 

After  the  churches,  which  are  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  church-goers,  come  the 
monasteries.  These  monasteries  were  most  useful  in 
the  past.  Now  they  are  practically  nothing  more  than 
delightful  and  odd  places  of  hospitality  and  curiosity 
to  which  one  goes  for  an  outing,  or  makes  the 
terminus  of  a  walk  or  drive.  The  most  popular  one 
in  Kerkyra  is  situated  near  the  west  shore  of  the 
island,  on  a  rock  standing  high  out  of  the  water,  and 
surrounded  by  wild  trees.  But  others  more  interest- 
ing to  the  scholar  are  closer  to  the  town.  In  one  of 
these,  the  monastery  of  Jason  and  Sosipatros,  was 
interred  the  body  of  Katharine  Palaeolog,  consort  of 
the  last  despot  of  Sparta.  In  the  monastery  of  St. 
Paul,  the  last  of  the  long  line  of  historians  of  the  By- 
zantine empire,  Georgios  Phranzes,  wrote  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  as  he  had  seen  it 
with  his  own  eyes. 

With  regret  we  sail  off  through  the  purple  Ionian 
Sea  from  this  beautiful  island.  In  places  it  is  still 
as  luxuriant  in  vegetation  as  were  the  gardens  of 
Alkinoos,  king  of  the  Phaeaks.  Homer's  rich  descrip- 
tion is  still  true.  Cactus  swells  up  here  in  tropical 
luxuriance.  Magnolias,  poppies,  papyrus  plant,  be- 
wildering varieties  of  deep-colored  flowers,  vines 
entangled  into  all  kinds  of  queer  shapes,  fig-trees  and 
orange-groves  and  lemon  trees,  somber  cypresses, 
standing  among  the  rich  undergrowth  like  monu- 
ments of  the  older  ages,  high  banana  trees — all  can 
be  found  here.  Gigantic  olive  trees,  sometimes  alone, 
sometimes  in  bunches,  sometimes  in  groves,  are  spread 
over  the  island.  These  fine  trees,  together  with  the 


254  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

stately  cypresses,  give  a  peculiar  peaceful  appearance  to 
the  island.  The  Kerkyraeans  do  not  trim  their  trees. 
Accordingly  these  olive  trees  rise  usually  to  a  height 
of  thirty  or  forty  feet.  Examples  can  be  found  even 
sixty  feet  high.  They  are  truly  noble. 

This  richness  of  scenery  is  enhanced  by  the  fact 
that  nowhere  is  this  beauty  rendered  prosaic  by  fences 
or  other  careful  and  orderly  divisions.  The  entire 
island  is  one  vast  domain  of  beauty.  But  of  all  lovely 
spots  the  most  lovely  is  the  one  chosen  for  a  summer 
palace  by  the  king  of  Greece,  and  called  by  the  French 
name  of  "Mon  Repos,"  as  though  the  language  of  his 
adopted  country  had  no  word  to  better  express  the 
beauty  of  the  place.  Nowhere  better  than  in  Kerkyra 
can  we  quote  from  the  "Bride  of  Abydos"  the  lines 
in  which  Byron  sang  of  an  eastern  world : 

The  land  of  the  cedar  and  vine, 

Where  the  flowers  ever  blossom,  the  beams  ever  shine; 

Where  the  light  wings  of  Zephyr  oppressed  with  perfume 

Wax  faint  o'er  the  gardens  of  Gul  in  her  bloom; 

Where  the  citron  and  orange  are  fairest  of  fruit, 

And  the  voice  of  the  nightingale  never  is  mute; 

Where  the  tints  of  the  earth  and  the  hues  of  the  sky 

In  colors  though  varied,  in  beauty  may  vie, 

Where  the  virgins  are  soft  as  the  roses  they  twine, 

And  all  save  the  spirit  of  man  is  divine. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS 

The  name  of  Ithaka  is  one  of  the  few  names  of 
places  that  have  been  known  and  revered  throughout 
all  ages  of  our  civilization  and  in  every  part  of  the 
Hellenized  world.  Ithaka  enjoys  this  broad  reputa- 
tion because  it  happened  to  have  constituted  the  cele- 
brated domains  of  the  wily  chieftain  who  was  selected 
by  the  poet  Homer  to  be  the  grand  hero  of  one  of  the 
earliest  pieces  of  romance  ever  composed  in  European 
literature.  Ithaka  has  become  known  along  with  the 
Odyssey  and  its  hero  Odyssevs.  To  Homer  is  due 
all  the  fame  of  the  island,  for  if  his  poems  had  never 
been  written  this  island  like  so  many  other  charming 
places  would  have  remained  in  oblivion  for  all  save 
its  own  inhabitants.  Places,  like  men,  may  have  in- 
trinsic excellence  but  may  never  become  known  if  not 
for  the  master-songs  of  praise  that  make  the  one  and 
the  other  attractive.  Achilles  without  the  Iliad  would 
have  gone  down  to  Hades  a  brave  but  unknown 
captain,  and  our  Ithaka  without  the  Odyssey  would 
have  been  merely  a  remote  isle  of  beautiful  scenery. 
Indeed  the  Odyssey  is  sufficient  to  secure  the  ever- 
lasting fame  of  its  hero  and  his  home.  For  although 
the  Iliad  and  this  Odyssey  stand  earliest  and  most 
antique  in  all  European  fictional  literature  neverthe- 
less they  are  regarded  as  also  among  the  best  of  their 
kind  and  perhaps  have  remained  unequaled.  The  ex- 
cellence of  these  poems  secured  for  them  in  antiquity 
a  pre-eminence  which  the  succeeding  ages  have  not 

255 


256  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

seriously  disputed.  They  have  become  the  most  re- 
spected even  if  not  the  most  popular  poems  of  all  our 
literature.  And  the  name  of  Ithaka,  through  these 
poems,  has  become  a  name  familiar  to  us  from  our 
very  childhood. 

But  though  Ithaka  has  in  this  way  acquired  world- 
wide celebrity,  it  nevertheless  is  not  really  a  well- 
known  place,  even  in  our  times  which  have  surpassed 
all  preceding  ages  in  critically  conducted  historical 
and  antiquarian  research.  If  we  except  the  English 
and  the  German  scholars,  very  few  are  the  tourists 
that  visit  Ithaka. 

All  of  our  interest  is  centered  in  Ithaka  of  the 
Homeric  civilization.  If  the  later  fortunes  of  the 
island  attract  us,  it  is  mostly  because  we  desire  to 
know  the  after-fate  of  the  kingdom  of  Odyssevs. 
The  manners  and  customs  described  by  Homer  may 
loosely  be  called  prehistoric  for  they  are  a  picture  of 
affairs  in  the  island  centuries  before  "the  father  of 
history,"  Herodotos,  first  with  something  like  scientific 
care  recorded  for  posterity  his  quaint  accounts  of 
important  events. 

Homer's  descriptions  are  so  peculiar,  and  the  events 
he  narrates  are  so  charming,  that  the  localization  of 
them  is  an  enticing  task.  To  the  phil-Homeric  trav- 
eler every  hill  and  valley,  every  rock  and  tree,  every 
fountain  and  well  and  grove  seem  alive  with  the 
whisperings  of  the  songful  past,  and  call  back  the  itin- 
erant troubadour  and  his  rhapsodies. 

Ithaka,  if  judged  by  its  size,  would  be  very  un- 
important. Odyssevs,  however,  struggled  against 
countless  intercepting  dangers  and  resisted  most  se- 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  257 

ductive  impending  temptations  in  order  to  return  to 
it  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years.  Indeed  he  had 
left  Ithaka  unwillingly,  and  only  at  the  call  of  most 
impelling  duty.  The  witch  Kalypso,  to  whose  word 
he  had  no  reason  for  refusing  implicit  belief,  offered 
to  place  him  among  the  immortals  if  renouncing  his 
determination  of  returning  to  Ithaka  he  would  become 
her  husband.  But  Odyssevs  loved  his  native  castle 
too  well,  that  "nest  among  the  cliffs,"  as  Cicero  calls 
the  palace  of  this  hero.  He  loved  it  "non  quia  larga, 
sed  quia  sua."  Indeed  the  entire  island  is  less  than 
fifteen  miles  long  and  its  greatest  width  is  not  more 
than  four  or  five  miles.  In  shape  it  resembles  two 
mountains  standing  in  the  sea,  united  by  a  narrow 
isthmus  less  than  half  a  mile  wide. 

Its  population,  now  as  well  as  in  the  days  of 
Odyssevs,  is  small  for  the  size  of  the  island.  Accord- 
ing to  the  census  of  1889,  the  inhabitants  numbered 
8,821  souls. 

Of  the  two  poems  traditionally  and  conveniently 
attributed  to  Homer,  the  one  which  deals  chiefly  with 
Ithaka  is  the  Odyssey.  The  Odyssey  is  a  collection  of 
ballad-like  songs,  patriotic  and  social,  which  may 
first  have  been  composed  in  the  Peloponnesos,  or 
possibly  by  exiled  Greeks  who  lived  in  Asia  Minor  or 
on  the  Ionic  Islands  near  to  the  Asiatic  coast.  These 
songs,  if  they  were  of  exiles,  re-echoed  the  remem- 
brances of  a  former  life  in  Greece,  and  of  a  united 
naval  or  military  expedition  which  the  Peloponnesians 
and  their  allies  had  once  made  against  some  mighty 
town,  which  age-dimmed  tradition  identified  with 
Troy,  a  once  powerful  city  whose  site  was  near  the 


258  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

new  homes  of  such  Achaeans  as  had  taken  up  their 
abode  in  Asia  Minor.  Living  in  exile  many  were  the 
beautiful  and  plaintive  as  well  as  glorious  songs  which 
these  Achaean  refugees  composed,  like  the  children  of 
Israel  in  their  huts  of  slavery  along  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates.  But  most  of  these  songs,  not  having  been 
collected  and  remolded  into  better  artistic  shape  and 
recorded  in  books,  perished  utterly.  None  have  sur- 
vived except  the  Iliad  which  describes  some  of  the 
events  of  the  war,  and  the  Odyssey  which  deals  with 
the  return  of  the  heroes,  especially  of  Odyssevs.  From 
these  ooems  we  get  a  picture  of  life,  such  as  it  then 
was.  We  have  to  hesitate  before  calling  it  ancient, 
after  all;  for  in  the  great  space  of  the  ages,  what 
happened  in  Ithaka  only  thirty  centuries  ago  may  be 
regarded  really  as  events  of  a  very  near  past. 

Ithaka  is  dear  not  only  to  brave  and  true  men  who 
seek  and  find  in  Odyssevs  a  model  for  some  noble 
qualities,  but  dearer  perhaps  to  woman  as  being  the 
home  of  Penelope.  Odyssevs  though  a  hero  worthy 
of  imitation  had  his  eminent  imperfections.  But  Penel- 
ope with  all  her  greatness  of  soul  had  no  notable 
defects.  The  virtue  which  Homer  most  exalts  in 
Penelope  is  her  steadfastness  in  believing  against 
probability  and  hoping  against  almost  certain  fate  that 
her  heroic  husband  would  finally  return.  Though  two 
decades  of  years  had  rolled  away,  Penelope  up  to  the 
very  day  of  the  unannounced  return  of  the  disguised 
wanderer  did  not  fail  morning  by  morning  to  lament 
his  absence,  and  to  hope  faithfully  that  perhaps  he 
might  return  even  before  the  nightfall  of  that  very 
day.  And  this  unalterable  love  was  so  much  the  more 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  259 

remarkable  because  she,  as  an  opulent  queen  and  of 
surpassing  beauty  of  body  and  soul,  was  for  years 
importuned  with  offers  of  marriage  by  a  crowd  of 
suitors  who,  confident  of  the  death  of  Odyssevs,  sought 
each  her  hand  and  wealth. 

These  primeval  suitors  have  in  their  way  become 
as  famous  as  the  steadfast  queen  whom  they  tormented. 
Every  castle  in  Ithaka  and  the  surrounding  islands 
furnished  its  young  adventurous  hero  who  claimed 
attention  from  the  object  of  his  suit.  Each  suitor, 
on  finding  his  advances  politely  refused,  did  not  depart 
from  the  castle,  but  remained  and  combined  with  all 
the  others  to  harass  the  queen  into  accepting  some  one 
of  their  number,  secretly  hoping  to  be  the  lucky  selec- 
tion. They  came  and  resided  in  the  spacious  palace 
of  the  absent  king,  and  ate  and  drank  and  made  merry 
at  his  expense. 

But  their  audaciousness  did  not  remain  unpunished. 
And  they  themselves  had  not  lost  all  sense  of  the 
wrong  they  were  enacting.  Most  appalling  are  those 
verses  of  the  Odyssey  which  describe  how  the  seer 
Theoklymenos,  who  had  come  to  Ithaka  from  Pylos, 
'foretold  dimly  to  them  the  dishonorable  punishment  of 
death  awaiting  them,  and  near  at  hand.  The  suitors 
while  gluttonously  tearing  from  the  bones  and  devour- 
ing the  half-cooked  meat  of  the  sheep  appropriated 
from  the  flocks  of  the  king,  grew  excessively  riotous 
and  boisterous.  But  when  the  prophet  stood  up,  all 
suddenly  seemed  to  turn  from  boisterousness  to  lament- 
ing. Tears  of  laughter  had  filled  their  eyes.  But 
immediately  the  feeling  of  joy  fled  from  each  man's 
heart,  and  while  his  visage  retained  the  contorted  out- 


260  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

lines  of  excessive  mirthfulness,  his  open  mouth  became 
rigid  with  an  indefinite  dread  of  unknown  but  threat- 
ened danger,  and  the  tears  of  laughter,  as  each  one 
saw  them  glistening  on  the  whitened  faces  of  his 
companions,  seemed  tears  of  terror.  No  other  passage 
in  literature  may,  for  its  intended  reader,  portray  a 
scene  so  dread-inspiring  to  the  actors,  except,  perhaps, 
that  in  the  Book  of  the  Prophet  Daniel  where  is 
described  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  foretelling  the 
impending  death  of  Belshazzar,  king  of  the  Chal- 
daeans. 

Not  only  did  the  suitors  waste  with  impunity  and 
destroy  the  property  of  the  absent  king,  but  they  even 
decided  to  do  away  with  his  only  son,  Telemachos, 
who  had  grown  up,  and  who,  as  they  began  to  observe, 
was  not  pleased  with  their  actions.  When  he  made 
a  voyage  to  distant  Pylos  and  Sparta  in  hope  of  learn- 
ing tidings  about  his  father,  they  lay  in  ambush  to  kill 
him  on  his  return.  But  their  plan  failed,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  Athena,  his  tutelary  goddess,  Telemachos 
eluded  the  assassins. 

The  audaciousness  of  the  suitors  was  naturally  sus- 
tained, if  not  occasioned,  by  the  consciousness  of  the 
strength  which  they  possessed.  They  were  the  sons  of 
the  powerful  men  of  the  land.  They  were  one  hun- 
dred and  eight  in  number.  But,  to  make  their  crime 
the  greater,  it  happened  that  nearly  all  had  occasion 
to  feel  gratitude  toward  the  family  of  the  king.  Penel- 
ope reminded  Antinoos,  the  chief  leader  of  the  suitors, 
that  his  father  had  come  to  Ithaka  a  refugee  from 
death  at  the  hands  of  men  whom  he  had  incensed,  and 
that  his  life  had  been  spared,  owing  to  Odyssevs.  But 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  261 

the  wily  and  gallant  courtier  only  replied  by  telling 
the  queen  that  if  suitors  were  a  cause  of  pain  to  her, 
she  ought  to  be  thankful  for  never  having  been  seen 
in  other  parts  of  the  Greek  world,  because  in  that  case 
the  number  of  importunate  suitors  lured  and  tempted 
by  her  beauty  would  have  been  much  greater. 

Odyssevs  was  a  brave  man  and  fond  of  toil  and 
wiles.  But,  nevertheless,  it  was  against  his  will  that 
he  had  joined  the  great  expedition  against  Ilion.  He 
loved  his  native  land  and  his  near  surroundings  too 
intensely  to  willingly  be  separated  from  them.  He 
was  an  exemplary  patriot  in  the  more  genuine  sense 
of  the  word,  the  narrow  sense.  The  rocky  and  some- 
what barren  quality  of  the  island  has  been  a  motive 
for  giving  high  praise  to  Odyssevs  for  this  wonderful 
love  of  his  fatherland.  When  the  witch  Kalypso,  as 
above  stated,  offered  to  make  him  divine  and  free 
from  death  forever  if  he  would  renounce  his  deter- 
mination to  return  home  he  felt  that  he  would  be 
willing  to  die  at  once  if  only  he  could  be  allowed  to 
see  even  from  afar  the  smoke  rising  up  from  the  altar- 
hearth  of  his  home. 

But  once  that  circumstances  made  it  imperative  for 
him  to  participate  in  the  expedition,  from  that  moment 
he  became  in  it  a  leading  spirit.  During  the  ten  years 
of  the  mythic  siege,  his  cunning  and  wisdom  and 
strong  arms  were  incessantly  employed  for  the  good 
weal  of  his  Achsean  countrymen.  After  the  war  was 
over,  he  set  out  to  return  home.  But  adverse  winds 
and  repeated  shipwreck  and  various  thrilling  and 
wonderful  adventures  and  hardships  kept  him  roving 
over  unknown  seas  for  ten  weary  years.  The  gods 


262  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

had  become  vexed  with  him,  and  the  gods  were 
punishing  him. 

Finally,  after  these  twenty  years  of  enforced  ab- 
sence, the  wanderer  wakes  up  from  a  heavy  sleep,  and 
finds  himself  in  a  country  which  he  cannot  recognize, 
although  it  is  his  own  beloved  Ithaka.  His  eyes  have 
been  purposely  covered  with  a  mist  by  his  protectress, 
the  goddess  Athena.  He  had  been  brought  hither  by 
the  honest  Phseak  seamen,  who  had  promised  to  bring 
him  to  his  native  kingdom.  They  had  placed  him  and 
his  treasures  ashore  while  he  was  asleep,  and  had  re- 
turned to  their  own  land.  From  the  lips  of  the  god- 
dess, disguised  as  a  sprightly  shepherd,  he  heard  the 
blissful  fact  that  the  land  where  he  is  disembarked  is 
the  beautiful  Ithaka.  The  bay  where  Homer  localizes 
this  arrival  of  the  returning  king  was  called  the  harbor 
of  Phorkyn.  Sober  scholars  like  Partsch  have  been 
willing  to  conjecture  that  the  harbor  of  Phorkyn  was 
no  other  than  the  port  of  the  modern  capital  of  the 
island,  the  town  of  Bathy.  This  place  would  then 
have  been  merely  a  country  district,  some  three  or  four 
hours  distant  from  the  castle  of  Odyssevs.  The 
wonder  is  that  in  antiquity  this  bay  was  not  more 
frequented.  But  as  appears  from  the  yet  existing 
signs  of  ancient  habitations,  the  towns  of  Ithaka  were 
on  the  western  shore,  while  this  bay  is  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  island. 

Then  Athena  allowed  Odyssevs  to  divine  her  per- 
sonality. Aided  by  her  he  concealed  in  the  cave  of 
the  Nymphs  the  valuable  presents  that  the  Phaeaks  had 
given  to  him.  Then  he  set  off  to  return  to  his  castle 
and  to  Penelope  and  his  son  and  father.  In  order  not 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  263 

to  meet  with  any  untoward  fate  at  the  hands  of  his 
enemies,  he  went  disguised  as  a  mendicant. 

He  first  came  to  the  strong  keep  where  his  faithful 
henchman,  the  swineherd  Evmaeos,  had  his  huts,  and 
guarded  the  herds  of  royal  swine.  Here  he  spent  the 
night,  well  entertained  by  the  hospitable  boor,  and 
here  he  met  his  son  Telemachos,  who  had  just  re- 
turned from  an  eventful  journey  to  the  Peloponnesos 
in  search  of  his  father.  Here  Odyssevs  learned  from 
Telemachos  the  conduct  of  the  suitors.  Father  and 
son  planned  out  the  process  by  which  they  hoped  to 
destroy  the  revelers  and  to  reobtain  the  kingdom  for 
its  rightful  sovereign. 

On  the  following  day  Telemachos  proceeded  to  the 
town.  After  a  short  interval  the  disguised  Odyssevs 
followed.  When  he  arrived  the  suitors  were  enjoying 
themselves  at  one  of  their  usual  revelings.  Among 
all  the  proud  guests  assembled  not  one,  not  even  Penel- 
ope herself,  recognized  the  disguised  sovereign.  Only 
his  decrepit  hunting-dog,  Argos,  which  lay  in  the  sun 
at  the  entrance  to  the  palace,  pierced  the  disguise  of 
years  and  habiliment,  and  knew  his  master.  Sympa- 
thetic and  touching  are  the  gentle  lines  of  the  poet, 
where  is  described  how  the  faithful  old  dog,  on  seeing 
his  long-absent  master  approach,  knows  him  imme- 
diately, although  clothed  in  rags,  lifts  up  his  head, 
wags  his  tail,  tries  to  crawl  to  Odyssevs,  but  dies  in 
the  emotion  of  the  effort.  Odyssevs,  noticing  the  glad 
recognition  of  the  feeble  but  true  old  dog,  began  to 
cry,  but  hid  his  tears,  because  the  moment  for  him  to 
reveal  himself  had  not  yet  come.  Odyssevs  entered 
his  ancestral  halls,  where  he  was  greeted  with  insults 


264  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

of  all  kinds,  but  had  the  sympathy  of  Penelope,  who 
called  him  and  asked  him  if  he  could  tell  her  anything 
about  her  absent  lord,  and  if  he  had  ever  met  him  in 
his  mendicant  wanderings.  The  disguised  king 
awakened  strange  hopes  .  in  her  heart  by  telling  her 
many  things  which  showed  that  he  knew  something 
about  Odyssevs,  and  then  prophetically  added  that  on 
that  very  night  Odyssevs  would  return  to  Ithaka. 
Penelope  did  not  believe  this,  but,  nevertheless,  was 
consoled  to  hear  such  statements,  even  though  not 
destined  to  be  true. 

Night  came  on  and  the  hospitality  of  Penelope 
furnished  to  Odyssevs  the  privilege  of  sleeping  in  the 
palace.  A  maid,  an  ancient  servant  of  the  house,  who 
came  to  bathe  him,  sees  an  old  cicatrix  on  his  foot  and 
recognizes  her  dear  master.  But  Odyssevs,  by  putting 
his  hand  on  her  mouth,  prevented  her  cry  of  aston- 
ished joy,  and  warned  her  not  yet  to  reveal  his  identity. 
Odyssevs  and  Telemachos  then  stealthily  carried  to 
an  upper  room  all  the  weapons  that  were  in  the  great 
hall,  so  that  on  the  following  day,  which  was  to  see 
the  suitors'  doom,  they  might  not  find  wherewith  to 
defend  themselves. 

After  various  other  events  on  the  following  day, 
the  suitors  again  gathered  into  the  great  hall  for  a 
new  feast.  The  disguised  king  was  present  as  the 
guest  of  Telemachos.  In  spite  of  his  being  thus  under 
the  protection  of  the  heir  apparent  of  the  castle,  he 
was  derided  and  insulted  anew. 

Then  the  queen  Penelope  entered  the  convivial  hall 
and  addressed  to  the  suitors  a  strange  speech.  She 
declared  that  at  last  she  would  yield  to  the  wishes  of 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  265 

the  suitors,  and  would  accept  for  her  husband  from 
among  them  him  who  would  send  an  arrow  through 
the  eyes  of  a  row  of  axe-heads,  using  the  bow  which 
Odyssevs  had  left  in  the  palace  when  he  went  off  to 
Ilion.  In  her  heart  she  knew  that  none  of  these  pol- 
ished youths  could  bend  that  bow.  The  axes  were 
placed  in  position,  and  the  suitors  received  the  arrows 
and  bow  from  the  hands  of  Penelope.  None  of  them 
succeeded  in  using  the  stiff  bow.  Then  Antinoos,  the 
'haughtiest  of  the  suitors,  tried  to  cover  their  dis- 
comfiture by  saying  that  they  were  engaged  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  festive  day,  and  that  such  contests 
should  be  postponed  for  the  morrow.  Odyssevs  then 
asked  for  permission  to  try  his  strength.  The  suitors 
naturally  refused  with  insults  to  give  to  a  beggar  per- 
mission to  participate  in  their  trials  of  manliness.  But 
Telemachos  and  Penelope  gave  him  their  permission, 
and  the  swineherd  who  was  present  as  a  servant  handed 
to  Odyssevs  the  bow  before  the  suitors  could  prevent. 
With  an  easy  pull  Odyssevs  opened  the  bow  wide  out, 
and  sent  an  arrow  straight  through  all  the  axe-heads. 

Before  the  suitors  could  recover  from  their  sur- 
prise, he  had  again  fitted  an  arrow  to  the  string,  and 
had  sent  it  through  the  heart  of  the  insulting  Antinoos. 
Then  in  terrible  voice  he  declared  his  identity.  The 
suitors  rushed  against  him,  but  all  were  either  shot 
down  by  Odyssevs  or  dispatched  by  the  swords  of 
Telemachos,  Evmseos,  and  Philoetios.  None  were 
spared  save  the  minstrel  Phemios  and  the  herald  Me- 
don.  Then  the  bodies  were  carried  out  and  purifica- 
tory rites  and  sacrifices  were  performed.  Thus  did 
Odyssevs  regain  possession  of  his  little  realm. 


266  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Before  this  bloody  scene  began,  Penelope  had  re- 
tired to  her  own  apartments.  The  nurse  who  had 
recognized  Odyssevs  from  the  old  cicatrix  then 
hastened  to  her  and  told  her  of  the  doom  that  had 
befallen  the  suitors,  and  that  the  valiant  mendicant 
who  had  accomplished  the  feat  was  none  other  than 
Odyssevs.  Penelope  was  anxiously  incredulous.  But 
by  a  conversation  with  Odyssevs  she  was  convinced. 
Odyssevs  was  then  by  Athena's  power  restored  to  the 
bloom  of  youth. 

On  the  following  day  Odyssevs  and  his  son  went 
out  into  the  country  to  where  his  father,  the  aged 
Laertes,  lived  the  life  of  a  gardner,  passing  his  aged 
days  in  mourning  over  the  loss  of  Odyssevs.  Odys- 
sevs disclosed  himself  and  the  rejoicing  was  great. 

In  the  meantime  the  kinsmen  of  the  suitors  rose 
up  in  insurrection.  A  battle  ensued  which  was  brought 
to  an  end  by  mighty  thunder  sent  from  the  sky  by 
Zevs.  The  opposing  parties  concluded  a  peace.  And 
thus  ends  the  story  of  Odyssevs. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  the  poet  of  the  Odyssey 
had  no  intention  whatsoever  of  describing  Ithaka  as 
it  really  was.  Accordingly,  it  is  futile  to  try  to  recog- 
nize and  identify  the  many  places  which  he  mentions. 
There  is  indeed  no  difficulty  whatsoever  in  finding  on 
the  island  sites  that  correspond  most  singularly  with 
his  descriptions.  But  the  reason  for  this  is  because  his 
descriptions  are  very  indefinite.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
recognize,  as  do  Professor  Manatt  and  others,  the 
sheer  precipice  of  Raven  Rock,  near  which  Evmseos' 
herds  used  to  fatten  themselves  on  acorns,  or 
Phorkyn's  harbor,  where  the  Phseak  sailors  disem- 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  ODYSSEVS  267 

barked  with  Odyssevs,  or  Black  Water  fountain,  or 
the  cave  of  the  Nymphs,  where  Odyssevs  concealed 
his  treasures,  or  the  Garden  of  Laertes,  or  the  site  of 
the  Homeric  town  and  Castle  of  Odyssevs.  Enthusi- 
astic Homer-lovers  have  found  congenial  spots  for  all 
these  scenes  and  sites  of  the  poem.  Only  the  island 
Asteris,  back  of  which  the  impudent  suitors  secreted 
themselves  when  they  waylaid  Telemachos  in  order  to 
assassinate  him,  only  this  island  puzzles  all  who  try 
to  find  its  site.  Where  is  it? 

In  purely  historic  times  Ithaka  played  no  part  in  the 
events  of  the  world,  and  therefore  the  island  is  seldom 
mentioned.  The  earliest  historic  appearance  of  the 
name  is  on  coins.  But  these  coins  are  not  older  than  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ.  The  immense  gap  from 
Homer  to  the  minting  of  these  coins  is  filled  by  no 
positive  information.  In  later  times  it  is  true  that 
occasionally  the  poets  could  not  refrain,  from  mention- 
ing Ithaka,  but  they  always  referred  to  the  mythic 
Ithaka  of  the  past.  Thus,  for  example,  Virgil,  in 
describing  a  portion  of  the  route  of  ^Eneas  through 
the  Ionian  Sea,  sings  that 

Effugimus   scopulos   Ithacse   Laertia  regna, 
et  terram  altricem  saevi  execramur  Ulyssei. 

Outside  of  the  poets,  Ithaka  is  mentioned  by 
Strabon,  and  in  two  inscriptions  found  in  Magnesia 
on  the  Maeander,  and  by  Heliodoros,  who  wrote  the 
^Ethiopic  Adventures  in  about  the  fourth  century  of 
our  era.  After  Heliodoros  the  name  is  found  in  the 
writings  of  Emanuel  Komnenos  and  of  the  Arabian 
geographer,  Idrisi.  After  the  twelfth  century  the 


268  HELLAD1AN  VISTAS 

name  no  more  appears  in  books  until  comparatively 
modern  times. 

On  account  of  the  great  gaps  in  the  written  tradi- 
tion, and  on  account  of  the  fact  that  modern  Ithaka 
does  not  geographically  bear  to  the  mainland  exactly 
the  relations  that  are  given  to  it  by  the  poet's  descrip- 
tion, some  Homeric  scholars  have  wished  to  doubt,  or 
even  deny,  the  identity  of  modern  Ithaka  and  that  of 
the  Odyssey.  The  doubt  is  almost  gratuitous.  But, 
nevertheless,  once  that  it  has  been  seriously  expressed, 
no  amount  of  investigation  may  ever  be  able  either  to 
confirm  it  or  to  disprove  it.  The  testimony  is,  at  least 
at  present,  entirely  too  slight  to  give  scientific  value 
to  any  attempted  solution.  Tradition  holds  that  here 
is  Ithaka.  Such  tradition  is  to  be  revered.  Dorpfeld, 
a  master  mind  in  kindred  matters,  thinks  that  Homer's 
Ithaka  was  the  island  which  is  now  called  Levkas.  But 
until  he  proves  his  opinion,  Ithaka  should  remain 
where  Ithaka  now  is. 


IN  LEVKAS 

The  island  of  Levkas  is  reached  four  times  a  week 
by  steamers  from  Peirseevs,  the  port  of  Athens,  and 
once  a  week  by  freight  vessels  from  Kerkyra.  It  also 
has  overland  communication  with  the  outside  world 
by  means  of  pack-donkeys  to  the  towns  of  Agrinion 
and  Bonitsa  in  the  province  of  Akarnania. 

Both  for  its  history  and  its  charming  quaintness, 
Levkas  is  an  attractive  nook  of  Greece  for  such  as 
chance  to  wander  into  it  through  love  for  the  not  yet 
commonplace,  and  have  disposition  and  leisure  to 
revel  in  its  restful  life. 

Levkas  like  the  other  Ionian  Islands,  and  in  common 
with  many  other  countries  of  Greece,  has  had  a  pre- 
historic period  in  the  history  of  its  inhabitants.  It 
came  into  local  importance  long  before  its  first  den- 
izens or  their  neighbors  had  learned  to  write  their 
history.  No  monuments  and  no  records  narrate  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  people  who  first  lived  here.  Were 
they  the  sons  of  Shem  or  were  they  of  Japhetic  origin, 
or  what  were  they?  We  do  not  know.  In  the  north- 
west corner  of  the  island,  along  the  ridge  of  a  high 
and  rocky  hill,  stretch  the  remains  of  a  once  mighty 
town  and  citadel,  built,  as  story  loves  to  repeat,  by  a 
race  of  giants,  the  Kyklopes.  Placing  myth  aside 
however,  these  walls  represent  a  civilization  that 
flourished  here  in  comparatively  modern  times.  They 
are  not  older  than  four  or  five  hundred  years  before 
Christ.  But  by  the  recent  German  researches,  it  has 

269 


270  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

been  proven  that  cities  existed  on  this  island  in  the 
remote  ages  when  the  "Mykenlanders"  lorded  it  over 
Greece.  In  literature  we  possess  venerable  mention  of 
this  country,  if  the  Homeric  names  of  "Akte  Epeirou," 
or,  as  others  think,  that  of  "Doulichion"  are  ancient 
appellations  of  this  island  or  portions  of  it.  Professor 
Dorpfeld,  one  of  the  foremost  of  archaeologists,  has 
suspected  that  Levkas  is  the  country  which  Homer 
describes  under  the  name  of  "Ithaka,"  a  supposition 
which  if  possibly  true,  can  never  be  proven.  At  any 
rate,  it  is  perhaps  with  the  history  of  the  heroic  age 
in  which  the  Trojan  War  was  fought  that  this  land 
first  makes  itself  known  in  literature  to  posterity. 

Levkas  is  quite  small,  its  area  being  something  less 
than  one  hundred  square  miles.  Physically  it  has  the 
peculiarity  of  having  been  more  than  once  not  as  it 
now  is,  an  island,  but  a  peninsular  projection,  an  "akte 
epeirou,"  of  Akarnania.  Its  successive  changes  from 
promontory  to  island  and  from  island  to  promontory 
are  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  narrow  strait 
which  separates  Levkas  from  Akarnania  has  the  habit 
of  silting  up  with  sand  that  keeps  forever  rolling  down 
into  it  from  the  hills  on  either  side.  There  is  no  tide 
or  other  regular  current  to  wash  the  channel  clear 
again.  Twice  does  history  record  the  renewal  of  the 
channel  artificially  in  the  ages  before  the  birth  of 
Christ.  And  in  our  own  days  the  work  has  been  done 
again. 

In  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  Dorian  colonists 
from  the  rich  and  enterprising  city  of  Korinth,  sent 
out  by  the  famous  prince  Kypselos,  came  into  Levkas 
and  established  themselves  as  merchants  and  artisans. 


IN  LEVKAS  271 

Through  their  superior  activity,  commercial  intelli- 
gence, and  bravery,  they  soon  became  masters  of  the 
island,  and  reduced  the  older  inhabitants  to  a  state  of 
subjugation.  They  were  the  first  who  were  known  to 
have  cut  the  island  loose  from  the  mainland.  They 
opened  a  channel  deep  enough  for  their  largest  ships 
of  commerce,  and  thus  made  it  possible  to  communi- 
cate by  water  with  Korinth  and  the  other  important 
cities  of  Greece  without  having  to  trust  their  ships  to 
the  storms  that  rage  in  the  open  Ionian  Sea  along  the 
west  coast  of  Levkas.  They  built  a  new  city  close  to 
the  new-cut  waterway,  or  at  least  extended  Nerikos, 
the  city  of  the  aborigines,  from  its  citadel  heights 
down  to  the  water  front.  The  name  of  Levkas  was 
brought  to  the  island  and  to  its  new  city  by  these 
Dorian  settlers.  With  them  does  the  name  first  appear 
in  documentary  history.  Why  they  called  the  island 
so,  and  what  the  meaning  of  the  name  may  be  we  do 
not  surely  know. 

This  colonial  town,  founded  more  than  twenty-five 
hundred  years  ago,  makes  its  last  appearance  in  ancient 
history  in  the  year  197  before  Christ,  when  it  gloriously 
withstood  a  protracted  siege,  keeping  at  bay  a  well- 
equipped  army  of  Roman  soldiers,  until,  as  Livy  re- 
lates, some  Italian  exiles  that  resided  in  the  city 
treacherously  opened  an  entrance  for  their  besieging 
countrymen.  Careful  and  repeated  examination  of 
the  site  of  this  ancient  Dorian  colony  of  Levkas  re- 
vealed to  me  nothing  of  the  old  city  save  a  portion  of 
its  walls,  together  with  substructures  and  architectural 
fragments  of  buildings  erected  after  the  city  had 
become  a  Roman  possession.  My  examinations,  how- 


272  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

ever,  were  necessarily  not  thorough.  German  archae- 
ologists have  since  my  visit  carefully  examined  all  the 
ruins  on  the  island.  Even  the  cemeteries  have  kept 
but  scant  and  unsatisfactory  account  of  these  busy 
merchants  of  yore.  For  the  few  epigraphs  still  to  be 
easily  found  commemorate  not  the  old  Korinthian 
settlers  but  their  successors,  native  and  adventitious, 
who  lived  here  under  Roman  sway  after  the  year  197 
before  Christ.  Among  these  sepulchral  inscriptions 
are  some  which  contain  Latin  names.  None  of  the 
stones  are  such  as  would  indicate  that  the  individuals 
buried  near  them  were  of  high  rank.  Still  many  a  cel- 
ebrated Roman  visited  Levkas,  and  possibly  not  a  few 
distinguished  exiles,  or  others  who  found  it  necessary 
to  live  at  a  distance  from  the  eternal  city,  may  have 
taken  up  their  permanent  abode  here. 

After  the  Roman  Italians  became  a  people  of  cul- 
ture and  lovers  of  tradition,  the  scholars  and  poets  of 
Italy  loved  to  seize  every  clue  which  tended  to  show 
truly  or  speciously  that  their  nation  was  closely  con- 
nected in  tradition  and  fame  with  the  historic  east. 
An  illustration  is  furnished  us  here.  For  in  Levkas 
just  outside  the  walls  of  the  town  there  stood  in  classic 
days  a  fine  Doric  temple  sacred  to  "Aphrodite  ./Eneias." 
And  many  a  famous  Roman,  including  Cicero,  proudly 
visited  this  shrine,  because  their  poets  and  historians 
informed  them  that  this  temple  had  been  built  by  the 
mythological  founder  of  Latin  nobility,  ^Eneas,  the 
son  of  Anchises.  Livy  narrates  that  ^Eneas  in  his  long 
flight  to  Rome  from  the  lost  city  of  Troy  was  obliged 
to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Dodona  in  Epeiros  in  order  to 
discover  his  future  fate  by  consulting  the  oracle  of 


IN  LEVKAS  273 

Zevs,  who  there  had  a  most  sacred  place  of  prophecy. 
On  his  way  to  Dodona,  ^Eneas  passed  through  Levkas 
and  tarried  long  enough  to  erect  this  shrine  to  his 
mother,  the  goddess  Aphrodite. 

The  modern  town  is  situated  a  few  minutes'  walk 
northwest  from  the  site  of  the  ancient  Doric  city  and 
citadel.  From  this  modern  town  one  can  look  across 
the  bay  to  the  promontory  of  Aktion,  in  former  ages 
famous  for  its  temple  of  Apollon,  but  forever  to  be 
famous  because  here  in  the  year  31  before  Christ  the 
fate  of  the  Roman  empire  and  of  the  world  was  de- 
cided in  the  well-known  naval  battle  where  the  young 
Octavian  won  for  himself  the  irrevocable  authority  of 
emperor  and  the  title  of  Augustus,  by  defeating  the 
fleets  of  Antony  and  his  Hellenic  ally,  Kleopatra.  A 
little  farther  to  the  north  glitter  under  the  sun  the 
white  houses  and  dirty  barracks  of  the  Turkish  town  of 
Preveza.  It  is  the  modern  successor  of  old  Nikopolis, 
"the  city  of  victory,"  which  this  same  proud  emperor 
built  from  the  spoils  of  the  neighboring  Hellenic  cities, 
including  Levkas,  as  an  everlasting  monument  to  his 
stupendous  good  fortune.  But  the  inroads  of  Goths 
and  Vandals  and  Bulgarians,  followed  by  the  microbes 
of  malarial  fevers,  have  been  more  powerful  than  the 
mighty  will  of  Augustus,  and  the  well-built  walls  and 
edifices  of  Nikopolis  now  stand  deserted,  ruined,  and 
haunted  in  the  marshes  west  of  Preveza. 

On  the  island  of  Levkas,  besides  the  modern  town, 
there  are  several  prosperous  villages ;  but  none  of  them 
can  boast  of  ancient  age.  The  present  capital  now 
bears  the  same  name  as  the  island  itself,  but  when 
first  founded  it  was  called  Santa  Maura.  It  is  not 


274  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

even  the  oldest  of  the  modem  settlements.  At  its 
beginning  in  the  year  1445,  it  was  simply  a  group  of 
fishermens'  huts.  It  then  took  its  name  of  Santa 
Maura  in  honor  of  the  virgin  saint  who  was  patroness 
of  the  Venetian  fort  which  commands  the  entrance  to 
the  harbor.  It  has  also  been  called  "Hamaxike"  or 
"wagon-town,"  since  it  and  its  suburbs  are  the  only 
portions  of  the  island  sufficiently  non-mountainous  to 
admit  the  use  of  vehicles  drawn  by  horses.  These 
two  names  of  Santa  Maura  and  Hamaxike  are  still 
in  popular  use,  especially  the  former;  although  the 
name  employed  in  official  documents  is  always 
"Levkas." 

No  one  thinks  of  Levkas  without  associating  there- 
with the  name  and  fame  of  the  most  renowned  poetess 
of  all  antiquity,  and  perhaps  of  all  time.  As  has  been 
expressed  by  one  of  her  most  devoted  admirers  and  at 
the  same  time  most  competent  critics,  the  late  Byzantios 
of  Triest,  "while  she  ranks  not  so  high  as  a  specimen 
of  woman  noble  and  true,  yet  she  stands  on  the  very 
pinnacle  of  fame  as  a  singer  of  love  sublime." 

Toward  the  south,  the  island  of  Levkas  ends  in  a 
long  promontory  of  light-colored  stone,  extending  out 
into  the  sea  in  the  direction  of  Ithaka.  The  west  side 
of  this  promontory  is  almost  perpendicular,  rising  to 
the  height  of  about  one  hundred  and  ninety  feet  above 
the  water.  It  is  on  this  rock  that  tradition  locates  the 
spot  from  which  Sappho  flung  herself  into  the  sea.  In 
geopraphy  the  promontory  is  called  Levkata,  or  White 
Rock,  but  in  the  language  of  the  natives  it  is  known 
as  "Sappho's  Leap."  The  story  of  her  death  is  well 
known  but  is  always  misinterpreted.  Following  By- 


IN  LEVKAS  275 

zantios,  it  may  merely  be  remarked  that  this  myth  was 
created  by  such  of  her  unhistoric  admirers  as  instinc- 
tively felt  that  the  woman  who  had  so  wonderfully 
described  the  mysterious  phenomenon  of  love,  and  had 
herself  raved  under  the  tortures  of  Eros  was  doomed 
not  to  die  after  the  manner  of  ordinary  women 
wrinkled  with  old  age  or  robbed  of  her  beauty  by 
sickness,  but  that  her  fervid  and  restless  life  should  be 
fitly  closed  by  a  mysterious  and  extraordinary  death. 
However,  the  original  form  of  the  myth  did  not  at  all 
teach  that  by  leaping  into  the  waves  of  Levkata  Sappho 
sought  to  die,  but  rather  that  she  hoped  to  rise  again 
from  the  dripping  foam  cured  of  her  affection  for 
Phaon. 

It  is  said  that  the  prehistoric  Levkadians,  like  the 
Jews  and  other  primitive  peoples,  believed  in  the 
efficacy  of  vicarious  atonement.  But  more  inhuman 
than  the  Jews  of  Moses'  time,  who  heaped  all  the  sins 
of  the  people  on  an  unfortunate  goat,  destined  to  be 
driven  away  and  compelled  to  wander  off  with  his 
load  of  others'  crimes  upon  him,  these  men  of  Levkas 
chose  a  human  victim.  This  fated  man  they  selected 
from  among  those  convicted  of  crime.  If  the  story 
has  any  truth  in  it,  they  used  cruelly  to  hurl  these 
vicarious  atoners  from  the  top  of  Levkata  into  the  sea, 
ages  before  the  story  about  the  Lesbian  poetess  made 
the  place  more  romantically  famous.  The  friends 
of  the  condemned  victim  had  the  privilege  of  trying  to 
diminish  the  rapidity  and  fatality  of  his  fall  by  fasten- 
ing artificial  wings  upon  him,  and  by  tying  doves  and 
other  birds  to  him.  If  he  escaped  death  in  his  plunge, 


276  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

his  friends  in  boats  below  rescued  him  and  he  was 
allowed  to  live. 

Sappho  was  not  a  native  of  this  island.  The  myth 
locates  here  not  her  life  as  a  poetess  but  merely  her 
death  as  a  victim.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it 
is  probable  that  she  never  visited  this  promontory  of 
Levkata  at  all,  but  died  in  her  own  native  land  of 
Les.bos. 

One  has  to  descend  to  modern  times  in  order  to 
hear  the  words  of  song  again  associated  with  Levkas, 
but  is  rewarded  by  finding  that  the  island  has  become 
the  home  and  nourishing-place  of  new-born  poetry, 
and  not  merely  the  storied  scene  of  a  romantic  poet's 
death.  Two  excellent  modern  writers  of  lyric  verses 
were  natives  of  Levkas.  These  are  Zampelios  and 
Balaorites,  men  of  high  rank  among  the  poets  of 
modern  Greece,  poets  who  have  the  privilege  'and 
ability  of  composing  their  verses  in  the  language  of  the 
gods — the  language  of  Sappho  and  Pindar  and  Homer. 

Zampelios,  who  died  in  1856,  was  in  sentiment  an 
intense  patriot  in  the  cause  of  Greek  independence, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  was  even 
a  member  of  the  well-known  Philike  Hetseria.  He 
wrote  poetry  of  a  kind  suited  to  express  his  hopes  and 
to  awaken  and  comfort  the  patriotic  aspirations  of  the 
oppressed  rajahs  of  the  Turkish  empire.  He  wrote 
chiefly  dramas.  Among  these  are  Marko  Botsares, 
George  Kastriot,  and  Diakos,  the  titles  of  which 
sufficiently  indicate  the  patriotic  nature  of  the  compo- 
sitions. 

His  fellow-townsman  Balaorites,  though  born  in 
Levkas,  was  descended  from  a  family  whose  original 


IN  LEVKAS  277 

home  was  in  a  wild  town  of  continental  Greece.  The 
family  came  as  refugees  from  Turkish  power  into 
Levkas,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  Levkas  was  a 
Venetian  possession.  The  Venetian  government  allot- 
ted to  these  exiles  certain  tracts  of  land  which  the 
survivors  of  the  family  still  retain.  The  Venetian  gov- 
ernment even  recognized  the  family  as  "noble,"  and 
since  1702  the  Balaorites  were  recorded  in  the  "golden 
book"  of  Venetian  aristocracy.  But  the  poet  was  not 
merely  a  gilded  aristocrat.  He  was  an  intense  lover 
and  admirer  of  the  simple  peasants  of  the  country 
districts  of  Levkas,  and  spent  much  of  his  time  among 
them,  collecting  their  traditions,  their  folk-lore,  and 
songs,  and  studying  their  rugged  language.  His 
poems,  mostly  lyric,  break  forth  in  praise  of  the  wild 
and  uneasy  life  of  this  class  of  people  here  and  in  the 
neighboring  mainland,  especially  during  the  days  of 
servitude.  His  poems  are  worthy  of  his  struggling 
country  whose  woes  and  virtues  and  follies  he  sings. 
It  would  indeed  be  praiseworthy  in  his  countrymen  to 
honor  his  memory  visibly  as  emphatically  as  they  do 
in  their  hearts  by  erecting  a  suitable  monument  to 
him  either  in  Levkas  or  in  the  little  sland  of  Maduri, 
where  he  used  to  spend  much  of  his  time.  His  grave 
in  the  old  and  abandoned  cemetery  behind  the  church 
of  the  Pantokrator  is  marked  by  a  plain  marble  slab 
with  no  other  information  than  the  date  of  his  birth 
and  death. 

Levkas,  after  having  been  successively  independent, 
subject  to  the  West,  and  subject  to  Byzantion,  became, 
like  its  sister  islands  of  the  Ionian  group,  a  Venetian 
possession  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  remained  now 


278  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Venetian  now  Turkish  down  to  the  year  1797.  Then 
it  was  rapidly  shuffled  from  master  to  master,  until 
finally  in  1815,  it  came  under  English  control.  So 
did  it  remain  until  1864,  when  the  Ionian  Islands  all 
became  a  portion  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece. 

During  the  Greek  war  for  independence,  Levkas, 
being  under  the  comparatively  humane  government  of 
England,  served,  as  well  as  the  other  islands,  as  a  place 
of  refuge  for  many  a  hounded  patriot  from  the 
swamps  of  Bonitsa  or  the  mountain  gorges  of  Evry- 
tania,  for  whose  head  some  Pasha  had  promised 
money  and  favor. 

But  even  before  the  coming  of  the  English,  Levkas 
was,  under  the  Venetians,  a  haven  of  safety.  Many, 
like  the  Valaorites,  came  and  abode  here  permanently. 
Others,  however,  much  more  numerous  used  tempo- 
rarily to  cross  over  the  narrow  separating  straits, 
remain  under  cover  while  their  pursuers  were  near, 
and  return  to  the  fastnesses  of  the  Agraphiot  moun- 
tains and  Akarnanian  marshes  when  the  pursuers  with- 
drew to  a  convenient  distance.  This  ease  which  Levkas 
afforded  to  the  klephts,  more  than  once  enraged  the 
Pashas  of  the  mainland.  And  in  1807,  the  infamous 
Ali,  Pasha  of  loannina,  whom  Byron  so  often  men- 
tioned, determined  to  capture  and  destroy  the  city. 
With  an  army  of  five  thousand  Albanian  savages,  on 
horseback,  lured  hither  by  Ali's  promise  that  the 
wealth  and  women  of  the  Levkadians  would  be 
divided  among  them,  Ali  came  to  the  ford.  But  see- 
ing that  the  inhabitants  had  been  advised  of  the  raid, 
and  under  the  leadership  of  a  young  Kerkyraean,  John 
Kapodistrias,  who  later  had  the  honor  of  being  the 


IN  LEVKAS  279 

first  president  of  free  Greece,  had  put  themselves  into 
position  for  successful  defense,  he  withdrew. 

The  entrance  to  the  modern  town  from  the  sea  was 
protected  in  Venetian  times  by  what  was  then  a  for- 
midable fort — la  fortezza  di  Santa  Maura.  It  still 
stands,  but  today  is  useless  as  a  defense.  It  serves 
simply  as  a  storehouse  for  material  of  war,  and  as 
barracks  for  the  small  company  of  soldiers  stationed 
on  the  island.  It  is  built  on  a  rocky  shoal  in  the  shal- 
low waters  north  of  the  town,  and  is  joined  to  the 
town  by  a  road  built  through  the  water,  half  a  mile 
in  length.  In  this  fort  the  local  Venetian  government 
used  to  stay,  and  from  here  the  Queen  of  the  Adriatic 
ruled  this  island.  It  was  not  the  policy  of  Venice  to 
come  into  close  and  unrestricted  familiar  contact  with 
the  peoples  over  which  she  had  control. 

This  modern  town  of  Santa  Maura,  or  Levkas,  is 
a  peculiar  one.  Perhaps  of  all  the  Ionian  towns  it  is 
one  of  the  most  prosperous,  although  from  its  un- 
pretentious squatty  appearance  one  might  suspect  the 
opposite.  The  island  lies  in  the  earthquake  region 
and  often  suffers  seriously  thereby.  Damage  from 
earthquakes  is  greatest  in  places  where  the  soil  beneath 
the  buildings  is  not  solid,  as  is  the  case  with  the  town 
of  Levkas.  Most  of  the  houses  are  built  not  upon  hard 
soil  or  rock  but  upon  a  sandy  earth  formed  by  deposit 
from  the  surrounding  mountains,  or  created  artificially 
by  filling  up  a  portion  of  the  shallow  bay.  For  this 
reason  even  a  slight  shaking  of  the  earth  affects  the 
houses  here,  and  for  the  sake  of  security  it  has  been 
found  necessary  to  use  two  precautions,  first  to  build 
the  houses  low,  and  secondly  to  use  stone  for  the  lower 


280  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

story  only.  Accordingly  in  the  entire  town  there  are 
not  a  dozen  houses  higher  than  two  stories,  while  at 
least  one-third  of  all  the  houses  are  only  one  story 
high.  Of  the  houses  that  have  two  or  more  floors,  the 
stories  above  the  first  are  always  built  of  wood.  And 
since  neither  wood  nor  carpentry  is  of  the  best  quality, 
and  paint  is  rarely  used,  lime  colors  however  occasion- 
ally being  resorted  to,  the  crooked  rows  of  houses, 
ranged  along  the  narrow  streets,  present  a  shaggy 
appearance,  and  the  casual  observer  might  think  that 
they  would  not  resist  much  of  a  shaking.  My  Ameri- 
can fellow-traveler  who  roomed  with  me  in  one  of 
these  sui  generis  houses,  had  been  sincerely  wishing 
to  experience  here  a  classic  but  gentle  earthquake.  The 
quake  came  one  morning  before  the  professor  had 
said  his  morning  prayers,  and  the  untimeliness  of  the 
visit  of  Poseidon,  together  with  the  peculiar  rubbing 
sound  of  the  moving  brick  tiles  on  the  roof  over  his 
head  probably  caused  him  to  desire  no  continued  ac- 
quaintance with  the  earth-shaking  god.  These  anti- 
seismic  houses  were  first  built  here  by  the  practical 
English.  And  the  sensible  mode,  once  set,  has  ever 
since  sensibly  been  followed. 

But  wooden  architecture  does  not  easily  adapt  itself 
to  Hellenic  styles.  And  on  this  account  the  antiseismic 
style  of  architecture  so  commonly  adopted  in  Levkas 
has  not  yet  found  favor  in  Zakynthos  and  other  places 
equally  subject  to  serious  earthquakes.  There  are 
even  here  in  Levkas  a  few  houses  where,  instead  of 
using  wood,  attempt  to  withstand  the  shocks  has  been 
made  by  building  the  walls  of  heavy  and  well-hewn 
stone.  This  plan  was  adopted  by  the  "resident,"  who, 


IN  LEVKAS  281 

under  the  English  protectorate,  represented  the  govern- 
ment. He  undertook  to  erect  an  imposing  temple  to 
the  patron  saint  of  the  island,  Santa  Maura.  In  the 
outskirts  of  the  olive  grove  east  of  the  city  he  deter- 
mined to  build  a  cathedral  sacred  to  her.  The  work 
began.  But  the  idea  only  half  pleased  the  native 
Levkadians,  who  began  to  dislike  the  fact  that  a 
"heterodox"  Christian  should  have  the  honor  of  erect- 
ing the  proudest  church  in  the  city,  and  to  their  special 
patron.  Moreover  the  "resident,"  in  place  of  having 
new  stone  quarried  out  of  the  mountain  side  for  this 
structure,  found  it  easier  simply  to  appropriate  the 
colossal  stones  from  the  fallen  walls  of  the  ancient 
city.  This  "profanation  of  antiquity"  occasioned 
tumults  and  riots.  The  work  was  interrupted,  and  the 
building  remains  and  will  remain  an  uncompleted 
conception.  And  every  Levkadian  as  he  passes  by 
remembers  the  text,  "this  man  began  to  build,  but 
could  not  finish." 

The  Levkadian  of  today  is  an  industrious  and  quiet 
man.  He  never  stays  out  late  at  night,  unless  he  be 
of  the  "higher  class."  Then  he  is  accustomed  to  de- 
vote the  evening  to  social  pleasures,  especially  during 
the  "opera"  season,  and  at  carnival  time.  Otherwise 
he  enjoys  no  more  violent  amusement  than  a  cup  of 
Turkish  coffee  and  a  cigarette  in  mid-afternoon,  or 
after  supper  in  the  evening.  If  he  has  sufficient 
leisure,  he  invariably  takes  an  hour's  gentle  walk  every 
afternoon  at  five  or  six  o'clock.  And  this  walk,  in 
winter  time,  if  the  colder  season  here  can  be  called  by 
the  name  of  winter,  almost  invariably  brings  him 
through  the  magnificent  olive  groves  that  surround 


282  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  town,  to  a  cafe  of  great  local  renown,  Kouzoundeli. 
In  summer  he  strolls  down  along  the  road  which  leads 
through  the  sea  to  the  old  Venetian  fort,  to  be  cooled 
by  the  evening  breeze  which  unfailingly  at  four  o'clock 
every  afternoon  begins  to  blow  from  across  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  to  enjoy  the  view  of  the  sea  and  moun- 
tains and  setting  sun. 

At  Kouzoundeli  he  sits  for  half  an  hour  with  one 
or  two  friends  and  discusses  politics,  like  a  true  Greek 
condemning  everything  without  however  expressing 
or  even  possessing  an  opinion  of  his  own  on  the  matter 
under  discussion.  During  this  quiet  debate  he  drinks 
an  enormous  glass  of  water  and  the  above-mentioned 
tiny  cup  of  coffee.  The  water  is  from  a  special  well, 
to  which  the  Cafe  Kouzoundeli  owes  its  fame  and 
success.  A  true  oriental  in  this  respect,  he  regards 
water  as  the  most  glorious  of  all  beverages — indeed  it 
is  in  the  East  often  the  scarcest.  On  Sunday  after- 
noons and  on  feast-days,  when  the  ladies  of  the  town 
accompany  their  husbands  and  brothers  in  this  stroll, 
the  picture  at  Kouzoundeli  is  quite  attractive. 

A  further  word  must  be  said  about  the  olive  groves 
here.  These  immense  forests  of  olive  trees,  although 
not  divided  by  fences  or  ditches  or  walls,  are  however 
not  the  possession  of  a  single  owner,  but  belong  by  in- 
heritance to  a  large  number  of  individuals,  each  one  of 
whom  owns  a  certain  number  of  trees.  The  life  of  an 
olive  tree  is  practically  everlasting.  And  just  as  land 
or  other  immovable  property  remains  an  inheritance 
in  the  same  family  for  generations,  so  here  in  the  East 
an  olive  tree  or  a  well  may  be  deeded  down  through 
centuries  as  a  private  possession  without  any  reference 


IN  LEVKAS  283 

to  the  field  in  which  the  tree  or  well  may  be.  Here  in 
Levkas  these  olive  trees  date  from  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  were  planted  in  response  to  a  circular  which  the 
Venetian  government  issued,  giving  a  prize  in  money 
for  every  olive  tree  that  anyone  might  plant,  in  any 
of  the  Ionian  Islands.  Besides  the  prize,  the  planter 
became  the  owner  of  the  trees,  and  could  sell  them  or 
bequeath  them  to  others,  independently  of  the  land. 
He  might  under  certain  circumstances  plant  the  trees 
in  another  man's  field,  or  in  lands  belonging  to  the 
public  domain.  All  the  splendid  groves  in  these  islands 
are  due  to  this  interested  patronage  of  the  Venetian 
republic.  Each  tree  in  this  extensive  grove  has  the 
initials  of  its  owner  cut  in  the  bark.  As  the  custom 
of  attaching  dowries  to  marriageable  daughters  exists 
here,  one  may  often  hear  that  the  dowry  of  some  dark- 
eyed  Penelope  or  Terpsichore  consists  of  a  certain 
number  of  olive  trees.  So  inviolable  is  this  tree- 
ownership,  that  over  in  Kephallenia,  where  the  same 
custom  exists,  a  case  came  to  my  attention  where  a 
single  tree  standing  in  the  middle  of  a  garden  was 
owned  by  a  person  different  from  the  proprietor  of 
the  land.  The  owner  of  the  garden,  after  having 
long  tried  in  vain  to  purchase  the  tree  by  offering  an 
exorbitant  price,  resorted  to  the  violent  plan  of  burn- 
ing the  tree.  When  proven  to  have  burned  it,  he  was 
compelled  to  suffer  a  term  of  imprisonment,  pay  fines, 
remunerate  the  owner  heavily,  and  he  dare  not  now 
uproot  the  charred  and  blackened  stump  and  trunk 
of  the  tree,  which  still  stands  in  his  garden,  and  makes 
him  an  object  of  the  jokes  of  his  neighbors. 

The  evening  stroll  in  summer  time  is,  as  has  been 


284  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

said,  down  along  the  road  which  connects  the  town 
and  the  fort.  Parallel  with  this  road  the  shallow  sea 
has  been  deepened  into  a  good  canal  about  one  hundred 
feet  wide.  At  the  extreme  end  of  the  road,  near  the 
fort,  are  located  cafes,  and  bathing-houses.  Many 
who  do  not  wish  to  walk  so  far,  choose  to  be  carried 
up  and  down  in  little  barks  which,  with  the  zephyr 
from  across  the  Adriatic,  shoot  along  propelled  by  one 
large  sail,  and  guided  straight  as  an  arrow  by  the  easy 
skill  of  these  best  and  surest  of  boaters.  From  the 
fort  they  look  across  the  Adriatic  at  the  setting  sun, 
than  which  in  all  his  life  the  writer  saw  but  one  more 
glorious — in  the  Bay  of  Kerkyra.  To  the  north  they 
see,  behind  Preveza  and  the  Gulf  of  Arta,  the  rugged 
tops  of  the  mountains  of  Epeiros,  and  to  the  east  the 
hills  of  Akarnania  and  the  outshoots  of  lofty  Pindos. 
Nor  are  the  mountains  of  Levkas  herself,  rising  south 
of  the  city  behind  the  olive  groves,  less  beautiful  with 
their  darker  hues,  caused  by  the  shrubbery  that  grows 
on  them. 

Over  toward  the  northwest,  like  a  blue  bubble  on 
the  blue  sea,  is  the  larger  of  the  two  islands  of  Paxos, 
a  sweet  and  quiet  place  worthy  of  a  visit  from  any- 
one who  wishes  to  see  what  real  seclusion  is.  It  was 
while  sailing  in  the  waters  between  Levkas  and  Paxos 
that  a  certain  crew  of  sailors  heard  the  wonderful 
voice  calling  out  at  the  moment  at  which  Christ  ex- 
pired on  the  cross,  announcing  that  Pan,  the  Universal 
God,  had  died.  Plutarch  tells  the  story  in  his  de 
Defectu  Oraculorum,  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning 
has  put  it  into  song : 


IN  LEVKAS  285 

'Twas  the  hour  when  One  in  Sion 

Hung  for  love's  sake  on  the  Cross, 

When  his  brow  was  chill  with  dying, 
And  his  soul  was  faint  with  loss, 

When  his  priestly  blood  dropped  downward 
And  his  kingly  eyes  looked  throneward — 
Then  Pan  was  dead. 

Levkas  is  quite  a  productive  island,  not  so  much, 
however,  on  account  of  the  suitableness  of  the  soil 
as  of  the  industry  of  the  peasants.  The  chief  products 
sent  off  to  outside  markets  are  wine  and  olive  oil. 
The  wine  is  dark,  and  is  so  full  of  color  that  one 
could  easily  write  with  it.  Perhaps  few  other  wines 
in  all  the  markets  of  the  world  are  dark  to  such  a  de- 
gree as  is  this.  It  is  sent  to  northern  Italy,  and 
sometimes  to  France,  to  be  used  there  in  giving  color 
to  other  wines.  It  would  command  a  high  price  in  the 
markets  were  it  not  that  the  natives,  not  knowing 
how  to  preserve  it  otherwise,  put  gypsum  into  it, 
which  injures  it  seriously.  It  is  sold  here  by  the 
producers  for  the  incomprehensibly  low  price  of 
about  two  pennies  a  gallon,  and  is  retailed  in  the  wine 
shops  of  the  town  at  the  price  of  two  glasses  for  a 
penny.  The  peasants  bring  it  into  town  in  sacks  made 
of  skins,  two  sacks  being  strapped  to  the  sides  of  the 
wooden  saddle  on  a  donkey,  which  trudges  along  as 
lazily  as  possible  with  his  load  of  purple  nectar. 

The  Levkadians,  though  now  a  well-behaved 
people,  have  in  the  past  been  sufficiently  wicked  and 
sufficiently  dangerous.  In  the  last  century  when 
piracy  still  flourished  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the 
island  of  Levkas  was  one  of  the  places  where  the 
vessels  of  the  pirates  used  often  to  hide,  and  many  a 


286  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

friend  did  these  pirates  have  among  the  inhabitants 
of  the  smaller  villages  of  the  island.  Today  of  course 
this  is  merely  past  and  pleasant  history.  The  old 
pirates'  ships  are  now,  however,  in  a  measure  repre- 
sented by  the  cunning  little  craft  that  succeed  in  elud- 
ing the  government  patrol  boats,  and  landing  cargoes 
of  contraband  goods  from  Turkey  and  elsewhere.  Duty 
on  all  imports  is  extremely  high,  and  the  daring  ad- 
venturer who  succeeds  in  occasionally  bringing  in  a 
boatload  of  sugar  or  coffee  or  other  necessary  com- 
modity, can  live  comfortably  on  his  gains.  And  the 
numerous  small  bays  around  the  island,  together  with 
its  nearness  to  the  Turkish  frontier  and  the  Turkish 
ports  of  Parga  and  Preveza,  make  this  running  past 
the  patrol  not  so  extremely  difficult.  This  contraband 
practice  is  not  regarded  as  a  matter  of  dishonesty  here. 
The  government,  for  reasons  that  cannot  be  briefly 
explained,  instead  of  collecting  its  customs  itself, 
sometimes  sells  this  privilege  to  the  highest  bidder. 
Accordingly  the  common  feeling  of  the  simple  but 
yet  wily  inhabitant  who  deals  in  contraband  articles 
is,  not  that  he  is  cheating  his  country,  but  merely 
outwitting  those  who  set  about  robbing  him.  Even 
one  of  the  most  respected  citizens  of  the  island,  a 
venerable  clergyman,  thinks  it  no  sin  periodically  to 
cross  over  to  Preveza,  the  Turkish  frontier  town,  and 
bring  back  under  the  concealing  folds  of  his  ample 
cloak  supplies  of  coffee  and  sugar  and  cigars — these 
last  for  his  friends — and  when  he  wishes  to  give  a 
modest  dinner  to  a  few  guests,  under  his  cassock  he 
bravely  imports  live  chickens  and  other  contraband 
articles  just  as  wonderfully  concealed.  And  no  Lev- 


IN  LEVKAS  287 

kadian   who   knows   of    his   skilfulness   blames   him 
for  it. 

In  the  last  short  war  between  Turkey  and  Greece, 
in  1897,  Levkas  was  not  wanting  in  patriotism.  But 
unarmed  peasant  patriotism,  how  brave  soever  it  be, 
cannot  stand  against  Krupp  guns  and  Mauser  rifles. 
The  few  untrained  Levkadian  volunteers  who  sta- 
tioned themselves  on  the  promontory  of  Aktion  were 
absolutely  of  no  use,  but  yet  deserve  not  to  be  for- 
gotten. The  school  boys  who  dragged  a  cannon  from 
Levkas  to  the  earth  works  opposite  Preveza  have  also 
earned  the  right  of  being  remembered.  Nor  should  I 
allow  it  to  be  forgotten  that  in  this  fiasco  of  a  war 
Levkas  had  her  phil-Hellene.  For  the  first  gun  which 
here  blazed  across  the  line,  boldly  even  if  vainly  flash- 
ing and  roaring  a  hope  of  future  freedom  to  the 
Christian  slaves  over  in  Epeiros,  was  fired  by  an  Irish 
student,  Burke. 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST 

"Zante,  Zante,  Fior  di  Levante." 

Of  all  the  Ionian  Islands,  Zakynthos  has  for  cen- 
turies enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  the  most 
beautiful.  Poets  and  travelers  have  long  known  and 
praised  it  as  the  Flower  of  the  East.  But  natural 
scenery  is  usually  not  attractive  except  when  associated 
with  the  history  and  acts  of  man.  So  it  is  with 
Zakynthos,  as  with  every  nook  and  corner  of  Greece. 
Its  beauty  is  magnified  by  the  long  history  of  the 
nations  who  have  from  time  to  time  dwelt  in  its  vales 
and  on  its  hills. 

Zakynthos  never  ceased,  from  prehistoric  times 
down  to  today,  to  be  a  choice  and  frequented  center  of 
population.  Although,  like  its  sister  Ionian  Islands,  it 
suffered  frequently  and  severely  from  pirates  and  in- 
vaders, it  never  became  desolate.  This  continual 
presence  of  inhabitants  has  made  Zakynthos  a  fruitless 
field  for  the  archaeologist  and  antiquarian.  Few  are 
the  ancient  walls,  few  the  foundations  of  buildings 
destroyed  centuries  ago,  few  the  inscriptions  and 
works  of  ancient  art  that  are  here  visible.  It  is  chiefly 
abandonment  and  desolation  that  preserve  to  posterity 
the  signs  of  the  remote  past.  In  human  progress, 
civilized  man  continually  busies  himself  with  destroy- 
ing the  past  in  order  to  create  something  that  is  better, 
or  at  least  more  necessary  to  him  in  his  new  surround- 
ings. But  the  very  hills  and  valleys  of  Zakynthos 

288 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  289 

speak,  for  they  are  still  instinct  with  the  past  life  of 
the  men  who  once  trod  across  them. 

Zakynthos  is  a  small  island,  containing  not  more 
than  295  square  miles  of  surface.  The  island  is  long 
and  narrow,  running  from  north  to  south.  It  lies  but 
two  hours  distant  by  steamer  from  the  west  coast  of 
the  Peloponnesos  of  Greece,  and  in  antedeluvian 
times  constituted  a  part  of  the  mainland.  It  has  been 
violently  separated  from  the  mainland  by  earthquake. 
In  shape,  the  island  consists  simply  of  two  rows  of 
mountains,  one  along  the  east  coast,  and  the  other 
rising  from  the  edge  of  the  sea  along  the  western 
shore,  and  between  these  two  mountain  chains  is 
stretched  out  a  beautiful  basin  of  a  valley,  which  has 
been  formed  by  ages  of  soil  washed  down  from  the 
mountains  that  flank  it  on  the  east  and  on  the  west. 

The  western  mountain  range  is  much  the  more 
extensive,  and  fills  almost  one-half  of  the  area  of  the 
entire  island.  The  grandeur  of  these  mountains  is 
due  not  so  much  to  their  size,  as  to  the  fact  that  they 
rise  almost  from  the  edge  of  the  water.  The  loftiest 
top  of  this  imposing  range  is  about  2,275  ^eet  above 
the  level  of  the  Mediterranean. 

While  the  hills  of  the  western  half  of  the  island  are 
grand  and  rough,  those  of  the  eastern  range  are  soft 
and  green.  All,  except  the  citadel-hill  and  a  portion 
of  Skopos  which  is  the  southmost  peak,  are  cultivated 
with  olive  trees  and  vineyards,  or  at  least  are  fit  for 
cultivation.  In  the  middle  of  this  eastern  range  stands 
out  the  hill  on  which,  from  prehistoric  times  down  to 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  stood  the  citadel 
of  the  city.  The  city  itself,  the  capital  of  Zakynthos, 


290  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

stands  along  the  narrow  shore  between  this  citadel 
and  the  sea. 

The  plain  that  unites  these  two  ranges  of  mountains 
is  quite  low  and  flat.  In  winter  time  I  have  seen  a 
large  portion  of  it  flooded  by  the  vehement  rains  which 
the  African  and  Arabian  winds  gather  from  the  Medi- 
terranean and  pour  out  in  deluges  on  these  islands. 
These  floods  come  so  regularly  that  the  part  of  the 
island  chiefly  subject  to  inundation  is  honored  by  the 
name  of  "lake,"  and  is  usually  not  tilled  in  its  entirety, 
as  the  waters  do  not  dry  off  early  enough  for  the  be- 
ginning of  cultivation  in  spring. 

This  central  valley  has  a  length  of  not  more  than 
eighteen  or  twenty  miles,  and  in  width  is  from  eight 
to  ten.  Its  fertility  is  most  extraordinary.  It  is 
covered  with  vineyards  of  grapes  and  currants  and 
other  such  luxuriant  vegetation  of  winterless  climes. 

The  quality  and  quantity  of  currents  here  produced 
have  been  so  well  known,  especially  in  England,  as  to 
give  the  name  to  the  entire  species ;  and  in  trade,  when 
small  dried  raisins  are  spoken  of,  they  are  frequently 
called  by  the  name  of  "Zante  currants,"  although  they 
may  be  not  at  all  from  Zakynthos.  The  entire  plain 
is  dotted  with  white  farmhouses  and  villas  of  the 
land-owners.  The  proprietors  of  these  villas  are  for 
the  most  part  descendants  of  the  old  Venetian  aristoc- 
racy of  the  island,  and  live  in  the  city,  except  in  the 
summer  time,  when  they  move  out  to  their  cool  and 
pretty  villas. 

Only  by  considering  the  richness  of  this  plain  can 
one  understand  how  so  small  an  island  can  support  a 
population  of  about  45,000  inhabitants,  without  any 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  291 

other  considerable  source  of  wealth  save  that  which  is 
connected  with  the  produce  of  this  valley. 

On  account  of  the  lowness  of  the  plain  it  is  not  in 
all  respects  free  from  malarial  dangers,  although  seri- 
ous fevers  are  very  rare.  The  unpleasantness,  how- 
ever, of  an  occasional  chill,  together  with  the  desire 
to  keep  away  from  earthquakes,  has  caused  the  farm- 
ers to  live  chiefly  in  villages  situated  on  the  slopes  of 
the  western  range  of  mountains.  As  is  easy  to  under- 
stand, earthquakes  are  most  destructive  where  the  soil 
is  soft  and  liable  to  become  easily  unsettled,  when 
Poseidon,  the  god  of  quakes,  bestirs  himself.  A  house 
built  upon  a  rock  will  outstand  a  fearful  earthquake 
before  it  falls,  while  one  standing  on  sand  or  looser 
earth  will  be  affected  by  a  comparatively  light  shock. 
This  seismic  fact  the  natives  of  earthquake  countries 
very  soon  learn  from  bitter  experience.  And  there- 
fore these  Zakynthiac  farmers  build  their  villages  like 
nests  on  the  rocky  slopes  of  the  western  mountains. 
Some  eighteen  or  more  of  these  beautiful  white  towns 
can  be  counted  perched  among  the  dark  green  sides 
of  the  slopes,  and  all  within  easy  view  from  any  one 
of  the  opposite  heights  of  the  eastern  hills.  These 
farmers,  however,  go  down  to  the  valley  to  live  in 
summer  time,  in  roughly  built  white  houses  standing 
among  the  vineyards. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  explain  further  why  these 
farmers  prefer  to  live  huddled  together  into  villages, 
instead  of  dwelling  much  more  comfortably  in  isolated 
farmhouses,  at  a  distance  from  each  other,  as  the 
farmers  often  do  in  America.  Along  with  the  other 
reasons  that  elsewhere  induce  men  to  prefer  to  live 


292  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

in  villages  rather  than  among  the  fields  must  be  added 
that  of  personal  safety,  when  it  is  a  question  of  such 
places  as  Zakynthos.  For  in  past  centuries  Zakynthos 
owing  to  its  flourishing  condition  and  its  wealth  was 
open  to  continual  attacks  of  sea-robbers,  and  the  farm- 
ers, if  they  did  not  live  protected  by  grouping  them- 
selves together,  would  have  been  always  in  danger. 

As  one  comes  into  Zakynthos  from  the  sea,  the  city 
opens  out  before  him  in  the  shape  of  a  long  half-moon, 
of  orange-colored  houses,  against  a  background  of 
green  hills.  In  the  middle  rises  the  bold  Venetian 
citadel.  It  is  an  enchanting  picture.  But  perhaps  even 
more  than  by  this  fairy  view  of  the  city  the  eyes  are 
caught  and  held  by  the  stately  mountain  Skopos  which 
stands  off  to  the  left,  and  whose  sloping  ascents  begin 
just  beyond  the  small  river  south  of  the  modern  city, 
which  served  three  thousand  years  ago  as  a  harbor 
for  Phcenikian  traders. 

To  visit  the  top  of  this  strange  hill  not  more  than 
a  good  half -day  is  required,  if  the  tourist  is  able  to 
stand  some  fatigue.  The  summit  may  be  reached  by 
donkey,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  few  minutes' 
journey  which  must  be  made  on  foot. 

On  the  top  is  a  monastery.  In  Greek  countries  no 
prominent  mountain  top  remains  unconsecrated  to 
some  saint  or  to  some  attribute  of  the  Deity.  This  top 
of  Skopos  is  sacred  to  the  Panaghia,  the  Blessed  Vir- 
gin, under  the  special  appellation  of  the  "Panaghia 
Skopiotissa."  The  monastery  is  located  on  a  small 
plateau  almost  at  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  at  a 
height  of  about  1,365  feet.  Just  east  of  it  rises  to  the 
height  of  ninety  feet,  like  a  colossal  tower,  a  mass  of 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  293 

gypsum  stone  which  from  its  shape  is  called  "the 
Tourla,"  or  "the  tower,"  and  which  from  a  distance, 
especially  from  the  sea,  seems  to  every  stranger  to  be 
really  a  colossal  watch-tower  built  by  the  fabulous 
giants  of  the  past. 

The  past  history  of  Zaknythos  is  so  obscure  that 
we  cannot  discover  with  certainty  what  name  this  re- 
markable hill  bore  in  olden  days.  Its  present  name 
of  "Skopos,"  which  simply  means  "the  Lookout," 
comes  from  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  Tourla  or  tower- 
like  column  of  gypsum  on  its  top.  Pliny  the  Roman 
writer  refers  to  a  mount  Elatos,  or  the  "Mount  of  the 
Pines,"  in  Zakynthos,  and  many  think  that  he  meant 
this  hill  of  Skopos. 

The  monastery  of  the  Panaghia  Skopiotissa  has  an 
interesting  history,  if  not  a  very  useful  one.  But 
now  the  monastery  and  its  surroundings  are  merely  a 
private  piece  of  property.  The  old  cells  are  deserted, 
and  the  long-bearded  monks  of  St.  Basil  chant  here  no 
more  the  wonderful  "salutations"  to  the  Virgin  patron. 
The  government  long  ago  took  the  property  unto  itself, 
and  presented  it  to  a  friend,  a  count  Logothetes,  who 
now  owns  it  and  its  tradition.  The  wonder-working 
Madonna  picture  now  adorns  one  of  the  city  churches. 
And  the  beautiful  Byzantine  chapel  on  the  summit  is 
crumbling  to  ruins.  One  strange  fact  which  immedi- 
ately is  observed  by  everyone  who  visits  this  old  church 
is  that,  side  by  side,  there  are  located  in  it  a  "holy 
table"  of  the  eastern  church  of  Constantinople,  and  a 
consecrated  "altar"  of  the  Latinists  of  Rome.  Here 
under  the  same  dome  the  two  religions  which  else- 
where employed  their  heavenly  powers  in  condemning 


294  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

each  other,  peaceably  offered  worship  to  the  same  God 
side  by  side,  one  in  the  Latin  of  the  western  Fathers, 
and  the  other  in  the  Greek  of  Chrysostom  and  Basil. 
This  fraternal  worship  actually  used  to  take  place  on 
this  secluded  hilltop,  as  it  did  in  other  parts  of  the 
Ionian  Islands,  for  ages,  while  the  devotees  of  the  two 
persuasions  tore  at  each  other's  souls  in  more  civilized 
countries. 

Just  above  the  door  of  the  monastery  is  a  stone  on 
which  is  recorded  a  mediaeval  inscription,  which  the 
most  eminent  of  epigraphists,  the  German  acade- 
mician Bceckh,  did  not  hesitate  to  transcribe  into 
his  mighty  tomes.  This  inscription  reads  that  "envy 
brings  destruction  upon  itself  by  its  own  weapons." 
One  might  think  that  it  referred  to  the  general 
disposition  of  the  two  ancient  Christian  churches 
to  each  other,  and  to  the  spirit  of  mutual  tolera- 
tion which  prevailed  betwen  the  eastern  monks  here 
who  grouped  themselves  around  the  Holy  Table 
and  the  western  frati  who  worshiped  at  the  altar. 
But  popular  tradition  has  kept  a  different  interpreta- 
tion of  the  inscription.  The  tradition  states  that  there 
once  existed  on  the  slopes  of  Skopos  two  villages, 
between  which  there  arose  a  feud,  which  ended  in  each 
village  completely  destroying  the  other.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  inscription  is  probably  a  formula  for  avert- 
ing the  fascination  of  the  "Evil  Eye." 

A  good  portion  of  the  mountain  is  made  up  of 
gypsum.  And  high  on  the  sides  of  the  ascent  are 
spread  here  and  there  glittering  white  patches  of  this 
gypsum,  inlaid  as  it  were  in  the  other  darker  stone  of 
the  mountain.  These  patches  when  seen  from  afar 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  295 

seem  to  be  white  linen  spread  out  in  the  sun  to  dry. 
And  popular  story  has  produced  a  beautiful  legend, 
which  a  sweet  singer  of  Zakynthos,  Stephanos  Mart- 
zokes,  has  put  into  a  short  poem  called  "ta  aspra  pania 
tou  Skopou"  or  "the  white  linens  of  the  Skopos." 
The  story  describes  how  on  the  vigil  of  St.  John's 
feast  a  rash  woman  dared  to  break  the  holiness  of  the 
day  by  spreading  out  her  fresh-washed  linens  on  the 
rocks.  But  the  saint,  with  a  certain  amount  of  spite, 
angered  at  her  impious  disregard  for  his  feast,  walked 
about  and  pointed  his  ringer  at  the  linens,  which  there- 
upon immediately  cleaved  to  the  rocks,  and  ever  since 
have  remained  stuck  to  them.  Every  year,  when  the 
saint's  feast  recurs,  the  unfortunate  sinner  of  a  washer- 
woman rises  from  her  grave  and  pounds  all  night  with 
her  washing-paddle,  punished  like  a  Tantalos  or  Sisy- 
phos  of  old,  to  atone  if  possible  for  her  sin ;  and  the 
women  of  the  surrounding  country,  when  they  imagine 
that  they  hear  the  strokes  of  the  paddle,  shudder  and 
cross  themselves  to  avert  a  similar  folly  from  their 
intentions. 

The  large  plain  that  lies  between  the  eastern  and 
the  western  hills  is,  as  has  been  said,  filled  with  alluvial 
soil,  washed  down  from  the  mountains.  How  deep 
this  soil  is  has  not  yet  been  determined.  And  how  the 
soil  beneath  the  alluvial  has  been  formed  is  also  yet 
undetermined.  However,  it  is  clear  that  the  island  has 
not  come  into  existence  independently  of  volcanic 
action.  Along  the  coast  of  Zakynthos  can  be  found 
at  all  times  small  pieces  of  pumice  stone  evidently 
thrown  out  from  some  volcanic  opening.  But  like 
stones  are  found  also  along  other  coasts  of  Greece,  and 


296  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

do  not  necessarily  indicate  that  active  volcanic  erup- 
tions are  now  taking  place  in  any  near  locality.  But, 
however,  numbers  of  such  stones  found  during  the 
earthquakes  that  desolated  the  island  in  1893,  and 
observed  to  be  glazed  by  recent  action  of  fire,  make  it 
probable  that  under  Zakynthos,  or  in  the  sea  not  far 
from  the  island,  the  old  god  of  earthquakes  is  still 
busy,  and  keeps  his  fires  hot. 

On  the  south  coast  of  the  island  is  a  semicircular 
bay,  which  the  best  geologist  of  Greece,  Metsopoulos, 
basing  his  opinion  on  information  furnished  to  him 
by  the  local  scholar  and  geologist  De  Biasi,  declares 
to  be  the  sunken  crater  of  a  volcano,  which  has  not 
yet  become  extinct. 

Apart  from  the  many  and  violent  earthquakes  that 
periodically  pay  their  fiendish  visits  to  Zakynthos,  the 
other  signs  of  the  presence  of  volcanic  fires  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  island  are  the  gases  that  sometimes 
are  seen  to  bubble  out  of  the  water  in  the  bay  of  Keri. 

But  the  best-known  natural  phenomenon  of  Zakyn- 
thos is  that  of  the  wells  of  pitch.  These  wells  are 
likewise  thought  to  be  an  indication  of  volcanic  activity. 
No  stranger  visits  Zakynthos  without  driving  to  these 
curious  and  historic  wells. 

They  are  historic  because  Herodotos,  writing 
twenty-four  hundred  years  ago,  described  them,  and 
mentioned  the  uses  made  of  the  pitch  gathered  from 
them.  His  description  is  in  general  as  accurate  for 
today  as  it  was  for  the  time  of  Herodotos.  He  de- 
scribes how  the  pitch  was  collected  by  tying  a  bunch  of 
myrtle  branches  to  the  end  of  a  pole,  and  dipping  them 
into  the  wells.  The  pitch  thus  collected  was  put  into 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  297 

jars  and  used  for  different  purposes,  among  others  for 
caulking  the  seams  of  ships. 

The  wells  at  present  are  not  more  than  three  feet 
deep.  They  are  filled  with  fresh  water  which  rises 
from  the  earth  and  flows  off  in  streams.  There  are 
a  number  of  such  wells,  but  only  two  or  three  are 
easily  approachable,  on  account  of  the  swampy  nature 
of  the  surrounding  land.  The  water  has  a  strong 
taste  of  petroleum.  The  pitch  rises  out  of  the  earth 
along  with  the  water,  and  deposits  itself  in  the  bottom 
of  the  wells.  The  guides  dip  it  out  with  bunches  of 
leaves  tied,  as  Herodotos  has  described,  to  the  end  of 
a  short  pole.  They  set  fire  to  it  for  the  benefit  of  the 
visitor.  It  seems  that  at  present  it  is  not  collected 
except  in  small  quantities  and  is  not  an  article  of  com- 
merce. The  entire  surrounding  marshy  land  is  covered 
with  the  black  pitch. 

The  history  of  Zakynthos  is  a  varied  and  absorbing 
one.  Whence  came  the  first  inhabitants  is  difficult  to 
say.  It  is  recorded  in  the  old  myths  that  the  first  colo- 
nists were  emigrants  from  the  Peloponnesos  of  Greece, 
Arkadians,  who  were  afterward  succeeded  by  other 
Peloponnesians,  from  Achaia.  But  the  only  certain 
fact  is  merely  that  the  original  inhabitants  were  Greeks. 
The  island  remained  independent  until  the  year  91 
before  Christ,  when  it  became  a  Roman  possession. 
It  is  frequently  mentioned  by  ancient  writers,  but  never 
at  length.  Zakynthos  enjoyed  a  life  of  tranquillity 
and  prosperity  under  the  Romans  until  the  time  of 
the  invasions  of  the  northern  barbarians  into  the 
Roman  kingdom.  With  the  coming  of  the  Vandals 
in  466,  began  days  of  trial  for  the  island.  From  that 


298  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

time  its  fertility  and  riches  made  it  a  continual  prey 
to  all  kinds  of  invaders  and  robbers.  But  nevertheless 
it  passed  through  all  these  dangers  and  devastations 
and  continued  to  flourish.  Under  the  Venetians  who 
possessed  it  for  centuries,  it  enjoyed  comparative  tran- 
quillity. 

An  incident  connected  with  its  history  is  that  dur- 
ing the  discussions  which  preceded  the  celebrated 
treaty  of  Campo  Formio,  by  which  Napoleon  secured 
to  France  the  fruits  of  his  victories  in  northern  Italy, 
he  proposed  that  Zakynthos  should  become  the  prop- 
erty of  the  duke  of  Modena.  Napoleon,  when  it  was 
suggested  that  some  remuneration  should  be  given  to 
the  duke  who  was  destined  to  lose  his  possessions  for 
the  benefit  of  Napoleon  and  France,  wrote  to  the 
Directory,  which  then  administered  in  Paris  the  affairs 
of  the  republic,  saying  that  to  remunerate  the  duke  of 
Modena  was  a  difficult  affair,  unless  the  island  of 
Zakynthos  be  given  to  him,  and  the  duke  accept.  This 
suggestion  of  Napoleon,  however,  was  not  carried  out. 
Zakynthos  instead  of  being  presented  to  the  Italian 
nobleman,  partook  of  the  fate  of  the  other  Ionian 
Islands,  and  became  for  a  short  period  a  French  pos- 
session. 

The  Venetians  have  here  as  in  the  other  islands 
left  enduring  reminders  of  their  four  hundred  years  of 
domination.  To  the  superficial  gaze  of  the  tourist,  the 
most  striking  Venetian  remain  is  the  strong  and  spa- 
cious fort  on  the  hill  of  the  citadel,  west  of  the  modern 
city,  and  connected  with  the  city  by  old  Venetian  zig- 
zag ascending  streets,  paved  with  cobble-stones.  A 
more  circuitous  modern  carriage  road  also  leads  up  to 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  299 

the  fort.  But  the  Venetian  fort,  in  its  day  impregnable, 
is  now  tumbling  to  pieces,  and  in  two  or  three  genera- 
tions its  mighty  walls  will  be  a  thing  of  the  past. 
Earthquakes  and  the  rain  of  centuries  have  eaten  off  a 
good  corner  of  the  hill,  and  have  begun  to  undermine 
the  walls.  The  hill  is  of  pliocene  clay,  and  not  of  stone. 
This  destruction  by  the  forces  of  nature  have  been  so 
strong  as  to  render  useless  one  of  the  entrance  gates  to 
the  citadel,  and  accordingly  this  fine  gate  was  long 
ago  walled  up.  It  looked  toward  the  southeast,  while 
the  present  entrance  is  at  the  north.  The  closed  gate 
is  still  recognizable,  with  the  names  in  Latin  of  the 
doge  of  Venice  and  his  representatives  in  the  Orient, 
when  the  gate  was  first  opened,  in  1646. 

Inside  the  fort  there  are  but  few  remains  of  classical 
antiquity.  With  the  exception  of  two  or  three  pieces 
of  sculptured  fragments  of  architecture,  one  from  the 
entablature  of  a  Doric  temple,  and  the  other  a  drum 
from  an  Ionic  or  Korinthiac  column,  there  is  little 
to  show  that  the  civilization  of  ancient  Hellas  once 
held  sway  here. 

I  copied  a  few  broken  inscriptions  that  showed 
where  rest  the  bones  of  the  bishops  who  represented 
the  Church  of  Rome  in  this  island.  The  Catholics  once 
possessed  at  least  two  large  churches  within  the  walls 
of  the  citadel.  One  of  them,  the  cathedral,  still  can 
be  seen  in  its  ruins,  and  the  paintings  still  can  be  traced 
on  the  curved  walls  of  the  apse.  Just  below  the  gate 
to  the  citadel  is  another  ancient  church,  which  was  rent 
into  dangerous  ruins  by  the  earthquake  of  1893.  I 
may  have  been  the  first  to  enter  it  since  the  earth- 
quake. There  are  also  ruins  of  the  old  Byzantine 


300  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

cathedral,  and  other  churches  of  the  Greek  rite.  On 
the  walls  of  the  Byzantine  cathedral  near  the  entrance 
to  the  sanctuary  is  still  to  be  read  an  inscription  of  a 
citizen  of  the  year  1562,  who,  as  an  accompaniment  to 
the  offering  he  had  placed  in  the  church,  wrote  his 
gratitude  for  some  favor,  in  the  words  "deo  et  patriae 
omnia  debeo."  While  the  grateful  thanks  of  this 
reverent  patriot  are  still  witnessed  to  by  the  inscrip- 
tion, his  own  name  is  not  known,  since  he  wrote  it 
only  in  abbreviation. 

Among  the  Venetian  families  that  lived  in  the  cita- 
del in  Venetian  times,  one  of  the  prominent  ones  was 
that  of  the  Pozzo  di  Borgo.  This  family  has  rendered 
many  services  to  state  and  church.  Some  years  ago 
a  survivor  of  the  family,  a  citizen  of  France,  and  a 
member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  sent  to  Zakyn- 
thos  one  of  the  keepers  of  the  public  archives  of 
Venice,  to  find  the  old  graves  of  the  Pozzo  di  Borgo 
family,  and  erect  a  new  monument  to  them.  Through 
the  archaeological  skill  of  De  Biasi,  the  graves  were 
found  beneath  the  ruins  of  the  monastery  of  Saint 
Francis  within  the  old  fort.  They  were  opened,  and 
the  remains  were  transferred  to  the  modern  Greek 
cemetery,  and  the  new  site  was  marked  by  a  marble 
monument  brought  from  Paris.  The  monastery  of 
St.  Francis  no  longer  exists.  In  the  middle  of  the 
space  where  once  stood  the  church  of  the  monastery 
flourishes  the  largest  fig-tree  of  Greece.  Its  trunk 
measures  about  eleven  feet  in  circumference.  Under 
the  shade  of  this  tree  the  remains  of  the  Pozzo  di 
Borgo  were  found. 

The  Venetians,  being  like  all  Italians  of  their  day 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  301 

admirers  of  art,  brought  and  propagated  that  in- 
stinct wherever  they  went.  Of  all  the  islands  of  the 
Adriatic,  Zakynthos  possesses  most  works  of  modern 
art,  especially  paintings.  A  few  pictures  even  older 
than  Venetian  influence  are  to  be  seen  here.  One  of 
these  old  pictures  is  regarded  as  a  valuable  treasure. 
It  is  an  ikon  representing  the  Panaghia,  and  bears  an 
inscription  which  however  is  of  disputed  authority, 
stating  that  the  ikon  was  painted  in  the  year  840,  by 
a  painter  named  Panisalkos.  This  antique  ikon  is 
preserved  in  the  church  of  the  Chrysopege.  Accord- 
ing to  the  custom  in  the  East,  it  is  covered  with  a  sheet 
of  gold,  so  that  only  the  face  of  the  Panaghia,  which 
is  allowed  to  remain  uncovered,  can  be  seen. 

Another  ikon  equally  curious,  if  not  so  ancient,  is 
kept  in  the  church  of  the  Phaneromene,  in  the  modern 
town.  As  its  style  of  art  clearly  indicates,  it  was 
painted  in  Krete.  But  the  remarkable  fact  is  that  it 
bears  great  similarity  to  the  famous  miraculous  pic- 
ture kept  in  the  church  of  the  Redemptorists  in  Rome 
and  venerated  under  the  name  of  "the  Mother  of 
Perpetual  Help."  This  ikon  has  historical  value,  for 
it  is  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  painter,  Em- 
manouel  Zannes.  Moreover  it  bears  a  date,  the  year 
1641.  The  church  of  the  Phaneromene,  in  which 
hangs  this  ikon,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  later  ecclesias- 
tical architecture.  It  is  a  church  of  the  eastern  rite, 
built  in  the  form  of  a  basilica.  The  entire  ceiling,  and 
the  upper  part  of  the  walls  are  decorated  with  mag- 
nificent paintings  representing  scenes  from  the  Old 
and  New  Testament.  Among  these  frescoes  are  the 
twenty-four  prophets  of  the  Old  Law,  painted  by 


302  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Plakotos.  Plakotos  studied  in  Venice,  and  his  style 
is  Venetian. 

In  the  church  of  Saint  Dionysios  the  patron  of  the 
island  there  is  a  painting  representing  a  popular  re- 
ligious procession,  as  it  used  to  take  place  under  the 
Venetians.  It  is  by  a  celebrated  Zakynthian  artist 
Doxaras,  and  shows  the  peculiar  and  picturesque 
dresses  of  the  three  classes  of  citizens  in  Venetian 
times. 

This  patron  of  Zakynthos  was,  like  many  of  the 
saints,  peculiar  in  his  history  and  fortunes.  Although 
canonized  in  the  eastern  church  he  was  a  Frenchman 
by  descent.  By  birth,  however,  he  was  a  Zakynthian. 
He  was  a  bishop,  but  was  never  at  peace  with  other 
ecclesiastics,  and  being  without  a  see  was  buffeted 
about  from  place  to  place.  He  spent  many  years  of  his 
episcopal  life  living  as  a  simple  monk,  as  abbot  of  the 
Anaphonetria  monastery  in  the  mountains  of  the 
western  part  of  the  island.  The  monastery  is  now, 
like  that  of  the  Skopiotissa,  the  property  of  a  private 
family.  Shortly  after  his  death  he  was  proven  to  be  a 
saint,  a  fact  perhaps  not  grateful  to  those  who  were  in- 
imical to  him  while  he  lived.  For  the  past  two  hundred 
years  no  Zakynthian  doubts  the  sanctity  and  the  power 
of  Saint  Dionysios.  A  rascal  might  easily  forswear 
God,  but  not  the  patron  of  Zakynthos.  His  remains  are 
kept  in  a  church  sacred  to  him,  in  a  magnificent  casket 
of  silver  and  gold  and  precious  jewels. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  saint's  feast,  his  body  is 
placed  for  veneration  in  a  conspicuous  part  of  the 
church,  and  then  is  carried  in  grand  procession  through 
the  city.  His  fame  is  broader  than  the  bounds  of 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  303 

Zakynthos.  Often  pilgrims  come  from  a  distance  to 
receive  some  favor  from  him.  Those  who  care  for 
his  church  do  not  hesitate  to  profit  from  such  confi- 
dent faith.  They  positively  are  known  sometimes  to 
tell  the  worshiper  who  has  come  from  beyond  the  seas, 
and  who  wishes  to  return  home  with  the  next  steamer, 
that  his  visit  to  the  shrine  of  the  saint  is  untimely,  as 
"the  saint  is  out."  Then  they  finally  consent,  softened 
by  gifts  given  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  the  saint,  to 
say  certain  prayers  to  him,  and  he  then  returns  to  the 
church  hastily  as  a  special  favor  to  the  pious  pilgrim. 
Then  the  priests  open  the  shrine  and  show  to  the 
awed  worshiper  signs  of  fresh  seaweed  on  the  feet 
of  the  withered  body,  thus  proving  that  the  saint  has 
just  returned  from  a  long  journey  over  the  water. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  Zakynthos 
has  been  one  of  the  most  prolific  centers  of  literary 
activity  in  Greece.  Its  poets  and  scholars  and  writers 
have  held  respected  rank  among  their  colleagues  of 
the  East.  They,  like  most  of  the  writers  of  the  lonians, 
have  been  generally  warm  advocates  of  the  popular 
dialects,  that  is,  they  believe  that  writers  should  always 
imitate  the  language  spoken  by  the  people  instead  of 
studying  literary  models.  The  opinion  is  a  strange 
one,  but  nevertheless  has  found  defenders  even  outside 
of  Greece,  among  scholars  who  are  unacquainted  with 
the  points  at  issue  here.  In  this  dialect-language,  how- 
ever, the  Zakynthians  have  produced  many  a  gem  of 
literature,  just  as  have  those  who  have  written  in 
dialect  elsewhere.  The  most  reputed  of  all  these 
Zakynthian  poets  that  took  the  common  speech  as 
their  medium,  was  Solomos.  He  was  in  his  prime 


304  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

when  the  war  of  the  revolution  broke  out  in  Greece 
in  1821.  Solomos,  being  a  citizen  of  Zakynthos,  was 
then  by  circumstances  an  "Englishman,"  but  his  soul 
went  out  in  heroic  songs  to  his  kinsmen  the  Greeks 
who  had  determined  to  regain  the  freedom  of  their 
fathers.  His  most  renowned  poem  is  his  "Hymn  to 
Liberty,"  written  in  Zakynthiac  dialect.  It  is  regarded 
as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  all  literary  war  songs. 
All  attempts  to  translate  it  into  other  languages  have 
completely  failed.  An  English  translation  of  portions 
of  it  was  made  by  an  educated  Zakynthian,  Kanales, 
who  lived  for  years  in  Boston,  a  friend  of  Long- 
fellow's. But  the  song,  in  his  translation,  is  not  fit 
even  for  an  advertisement.  During  the  disturbances 
in  Greece  in  1897,  this  song  was  sung  in  America  at 
various  philo-Greek  gatherings,  in  Kanares'  or  others' 
translations,  and  surely  the  effect  never  was  to  increase 
the  enthusiasm  in  favor  of  the  unfortunate  Greeks. 
The  kinship  between  literary  and  dialectic  language 
is  yet  unknown.  A  masterpiece  in  the  one  kind  can 
never  be  put  into  the  other. 

But  perhaps  even  more  than  in  Solomos,  the 
Zakynthians  can  take  pride  in  another  of  their  poet 
children,  the  writer  of  the  "Sepolcri,"  one  of  the 
masterpieces  of  Italian  literature.  Foscolo,  however, 
was  a  Zakynthian  not  otherwise  than  by  birth  and 
early  education.  His  higher  training  was  received  in 
Italy  and  he  died  in  London.  The  house  where  he 
was  born  is  one  of  the  pious  relics  of  the  city  of 
Zakynthos.  But  his  grave  is  in  Florence  of  Italy,  in 
the  great  church  of  Santa  Croce,  whither  his  body 
was  transferred  by  the  Italians  in  1871. 


THE  FLOWER  OF  THE  EAST  305 

As  has  been  said,  Zakynthos  offers  but  few  attrac- 
tions for  the  antiquarian  who  chiefly  seeks  remains  of 
ancient  monuments.  The  most  interesting  matter  for 
the  amateur  in  this  line  is  the  story  about  the  tomb  of 
the  great  Roman  orator  Cicero.  Cicero  is  supposed 
to  have  been  beheaded  near  Rome  by  order  of  Antony. 
Accordingly  it  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  body  was 
buried  in  Italy.  But  in  the  year  1544,  the  Franciscan 
monks,  to  whom  one  of  the  churches  of  the  city,  Santa 
Maria  delle  Grazie,  belonged,  made  excavations  in 
order  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  building  for 
their  monastery.  In  doing  so,  they  found  a  tomb  with 
an  inscription  commemorating  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero 
and  Terentia  Antonia.  Report  of  the  discovery  was 
first  made  in  printed  form  in  the  year  1547  by  a 
Dominican  friar,  in  a  treatise  published  in  Venice. 
Several  travelers  later  saw  the  tomb,  and  the  ancient 
inscription.  Chateaubriand  was  the  last  to  mention 
it.  Then  the  monument  and  its  inscription  disappeared, 
and  no  one  knows  what  has  become  of  it.  It  is  not 
wrong  to  suspect  that  in  some  way  or  other  the  in- 
scription was  not  genuine. 

Another  grave  in  Zakynthos  possesses  greater  merit 
in  veneration  from  mankind.  Its  site  is  unknown 
but  it  is  in  Zakynthos.  It  is  that  of  the  celebrated 
anatomist  Andrew  Vesalius,  who  for  his  discoveries 
and  devotion  to  his  art  began  to  be  suspected  of  being 
a  magician,  and  was  condemned  by  the  Inquisition  in 
Spain.  Some  narrate  that  he  was  obliged,  to  atone 
for  his  misdeeds,  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem. 
Others  say  that  the  pilgrimage  was  one  of  pure  desire 


306  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  not  a  penance.  But  at  least,  on  his  way  back  to 
Europe,  the  ship  which  carried  him  was  thrown  upon 
the  rocks  of  Zakynthos,  and  his  body  was  buried 
there. 


KEPHALLENIA 

Strong  and  strange  recollections  returned  to  me  as 
our  smutty  little  steamship  the  "Epeiros"  glided  into 
the  fine  bay  of  Argostolion  in  the  island  of  Keph- 
allenia.  Kephallenia  is  now  in  almost  daily  com- 
munication by  sea  with  Athens  and  Kerkyra.  My 
Capuchin  companion  and  I  chose  the  route  by  Kerkyra, 
coming,  as  we  were,  from  Sappho's  island  of  Levkas. 
Kephallenia  is  distant  only  about  twelve  hours  from 
Kerkyra,  and  therefore  only  about  twenty-four  hours 
from  the  nearest  port  of  Europe,  Brindisi. 

During  my  stay  of  five  months  in  Argostolion  the 
only  other  travelers  that  manifested  themselves  were 
one  life  insurance  agent  from  Triest,  one  salesman 
representing  manufacturing  firms  of  Vienna,  a  com- 
pany of  three  geologists  from  the  university  of  Parma, 
and  one  American  clergyman  from  Maryland,  for 
whose  coming  I  was  responsible,  and  who  probably 
has  not  yet  forgiven  me.  It  need  not  be  mentioned 
that  this  enumeration  takes  no  account  of  the  native 
travel  and  traffic  between  this  island  and  other  por- 
tions of  the  kingdom  of  Greece.  The  travelers  here 
named  were  those  from  foreign  countries. 

Like  the  other  Ionian  Islands,  Kephallenia  has  been 
a  portion  of  the  Greek  kingdom  since  1864.  Its 
external  history  is  indeed  closely  linked  throughout 
all  the  ages  with  that  of  the  other  septinsular  com- 
munities. But  nevertheless  Kephallenia  has  had  a 
peculiar  career  of  its  own. 

3°7 


308  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

The  name  of  the  island  is  extremely  old.  No  one 
can  furnish  an  authentic  interpretation  of  it;  but  it  is 
certainly  younger  than  the  name  "Kephallenes,"  by 
which  the  inhabitants  are  designated;  for  "Kephal- 
lenia"  simply  means  the  "land  of  the  Kephallenes." 

It  is  only  of  late  years  that  there  has  appeared  a 
hope  of  discovering  the  primeval  history  of  the  Keph- 
allenes. Hitherto  they  were  known  to  us  only 
through  the  poems  of  Homer.  Homer's  picture  of 
life  is  quite  correct  for  his  time.  But  his  references 
to  the  Kephallenes  are  in  the  newest  parts  of  the 
poems,  and  cannot  describe  a  period  earlier  than  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ.  A  few  years  ago  there 
were  unearthed  here  tombs  belonging  to  a  race  of 
men  who  had  flourished  and  declined  ages  earlier 
than  Homer.  The  culture  which  these  men  created 
and  developed  is  known  in  archaeology  as  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Mykenaean  period.  This  period  began  at 
least  two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  continued 
for  about  a  thousand  years.  The  civilization  of  the 
Mykenlanders  is  now  known  to  investigators  in  many 
of  its  details.  In  some  respects  it  is  scarcely  more 
difficult  to  describe  in  general  outline  the  manner  of 
life  in  those  remote  days  than  it  is  to  narrate  the  life 
of  our  grandfathers.  The  unearthing  of  these  ancient 
tombs  is  merely  the  beginning  of  archaeological 
research  in  Kephallenia.  Future  excavations  and  dis- 
coveries will  reveal  to  us  the  extent  and  quality  of  this 
oldest  phase  of  civilization  in  these  islands. 

Passing  over  the  successive  prehistoric,  Mykenaean, 
and  Homeric  ages,  we  find  that  Kephallenia  enjoyed 
an  active  and  flourishing  importance  in  the  times  of 


KEPHALLENIA  309 

the  historian  Thoukydides,  in  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ.  There  then  existed  in  Kephallenia  four  chief 
cities,  which  this  historian  designates  not  by  the 
abstract  names  of  the  cities  themselves,  but  by  the 
ethnic  name  of  the  collection  of  the  inhabitants,  calling 
them  the  Palians,  the  Kranians,  the  Samians,  and  the 
Pronians.  This  fact  is  so  much  the  more  noteworthy 
because  in  Kephallenia  the  custom  exists  even  till 
today,  of  naming  the  numerous  villages  from  the 
chief  group  of  families,  or  the  clan,  that  inhabits  it. 
In  the  time  of  Thoukydides  Kephallenia  was  a  free 
island,  or  rather  there  existed  in  it  the  above-named 
four  separate  and  independent  city-states.  Of  these 
cities  nothing  now  remains  visible  save  their  decaying 
walls.  One  can  stumble  over  jagged  rocks  and  labor 
his  way  through  briar  bushes  for  hours  amid  these 
ruins  without  meeting  anyone  except  an  occasional 
shepherd  or  a  stray  peasant. 

When  the  Ionian  Islands,  along  with  the  rest  of 
the  Hellenic  East,  fell  under  Roman  sway  in  the 
second  century  before  Christ,  Kephallenia,  notwith- 
standing the  tenacious  bravery  of  its  inhabitants,  was 
unable  to  prove  itself  an  exception.  After  having 
thus  become  a  Latin  possession,  the  entire  island  was 
given  as  a  gift  to  Gaius  Antonius,  an  exiled  Roman. 
This  rascal,  who  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century 
before  Christ  had  to  leave  Rome  for  the  benefit  of 
that  city,  was  not  only  allowed  to  dwell  in  Kephal- 
lenia, but  also,  as  a  gift  from  the  Roman  people,  to 
own  the  island  and  its  revenues  and  to  exploit  them 
as  he  wished.  The  manner  in  which  he  did  exploit 
the  Kephallenes  would  possibly  have  made  him  infa- 


310  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

mous  even  if  his  other  public  acts  were  not  taken  into 
account.  But  he  did  not  go  unpunished.  For  Strabon, 
the  ancient  geographer,  who  has  kept  for  us  this  bit 
of  local  story,  adds  that  having  obtained  a  repeal  of 
the  sentence  of  banishment  against  him,  Gaius  Anto- 
nius  went  back  to  Rome,  only  to  be  assassinated  there 
by  the  henchmen  of  a  more  powerful  demagogue. 

After  the  miserable  subjection  of  the  four  strong 
and  powerful  cities  which  once  were  so  proud  that 
they  would  not  recognize  even  mutual  dependence  on 
each  other,  they  rapidly  crumbled  into  decay.  In  the 
vicinity  of  each  one  of  them  there  sprang  up  a  new 
town,  more  insignificant  and  more  graceless  than  its 
arrogant  predecessor,  but  perhaps  just  as  proud.  It  is 
not  pleasant  to  believe  that  the  descendants  of  the 
great-souled  Kephallenes  of  Homer  ever  became 
reconciled  to  their  fate  as  subjects.  Nevertheless  a 
modern  Ionian,  Postolakkas,  who  made  a  collection 
and  catalogue  of  the  coins  of  this  part  of  Greece,  had 
in  his  possession  a  coin  of  the  once  powerful  city  of 
Krane,  whose  walls  still  astonish  the  archaeologist  by 
their  massive  greatness — a  coin  of  the  time  of  the 
Emperor  Augustus,  which,  instead  of  the  old  and 
beautiful  head  of  Zevs  that  usually  was  in  exergue  on 
such  coins,  bears  the  portrait  of  a  contemporary  Roman 
noble,  Gaius  Proculeius.  But  this  act  of  adulation  and 
humiliation  may  not  have  been  voluntary  on  the  part 
of  the  Kranians. 

Some  decades  of  years  later,  the  island  was  again 
disposed  of  by  its  high  owners  as  a  simple  gift,  as  we 
learn  from  Dion  Kassios.  This  time  the  humiliation 
may  not  have  been  so  oppressively  cruel,  but  yet  was 


KEPHALLENIA  311 

such  as  could  be  made  only  when  there  was  question 
of  a  land  of  conquest.  The  emperor  Hadrian  pre- 
sented it  to  his  beloved  city  of  Athens. 

For  a  thousand  years  after  this  event,  the  Kephal- 
lenes  lived  so  insignificantly  that  this  life  of  theirs  is 
not  continuously  recorded  in  the  pages  of  history. 
We  can  only  say  that  from  the  year  395  down  to  the 
year  1185,  Kephallenia  constituted  a  portion  of  a 
province  of  the  great  and  curious  mediaeval  Roman 
empire  of  Byzantion.  During  this  time  plundering 
barbarians  roved  over  many  other  parts  of  the  domains 
of  the  empire,  near  Kephallenia.  In  466,  Geiserich 
the  Vandal  ravaged  Zakynthos,  which  lies  south 
within  easy  sight  of  Fort  Saint  George  on  one  of  the 
hills  of  Kephallenia;  and  in  522,  the  Ostrogoths  plun- 
dered Kerkyra,  which  also  lies  so  near  that  sometimes 
it  can  be  seen  from  the  top  of  y£nos,  Kephallenia's 
loftiest  mountain.  It  is  hardly  probable  that  with 
such  destruction  to  the  north  of  it  and  to  the  south, 
Kephallenia  could  have  remained  unscathed. 

But  at  all  events  the  island  continued  to  possess  a 
certain  amount  of  strength.  In  the  year  810,  we  find 
it  fighting  against  the  naval  forces  of  Venice,  which 
at  that  early  age  had  already  become  the  strongest 
power  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic.  We  cannot 
clearly  learn  why  this  struggle  took  place  against  the 
Venetians,  nor  do  we  know  what  was  the  outcome 
of  it. 

During  these  hidden  centuries,  Kephallenia  surely 
did  not  always  enjoy  a  life  of  peace.  A  brief  notice 
tells  us  of  an  inroad  of  the  Saracen  pirates  in  the  year 
867,  and  another  notice  records  a  similar  raid  in 


312  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

1032.  Perhaps  even  settlements  of  Saracens  were 
attempted  on  the  island.  There  still  exists  an  antique 
village  on  the  eastern  shore  called  "Sarakenika." 

During  all  this  period  we  have  to  accept  the  sup- 
position that  the  people  often  suffered,  that  they  were 
often  decimated  by  raids  of  various  enemies,  and  that 
frequently  new  supplies  of  inhabitants  came  over  from 
the  Epeiros  and  other  parts  of  the  mainland  of  Greece 
to  occupy  the  lands  left  vacant  by  those  who  perished 
or  were  carried  off  into  captivty  by  the  successive 
bands  of  raiders.  These  immigrant  inhabitants  have 
also  left  traces  in  the  topographical  nomenclature  of 
the  island  as  well  as  in  the  language.  Their  history 
will  be  better  known  in  the  future. 

The  inroads  already  mentioned  were  chiefly  from 
the  north  and  east.  To  these  were  soon  added  others 
from  the  west.  The  western  enemy  was  not  tran- 
sient, but  came  with  the  intention  of  making  perma- 
nent conquest.  The  earliest  of  these  western  invaders 
were  the  Normans.  After  they  had  conquered  Sicily 
and  Southern  Italy,  Kephallenia  did  not  escape  their 
knightly  greed.  Their  great  leader,  who  conquered  so 
much  for  them  in  Europe  and  who  undertook  to  win 
for  himself  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Constantine  the 
Great,  came  conquesting  into  the  waters  of  the 
Ionian.  But  the  only  lasting  memory  of  him  in 
Kephallenia  is  the  name  of  the  northern  promontory 
of  the  island,  near  which  this  ambitious  conqueror 
died,  Cape  Guiscard,  or  the  Cape  of  the  Wizard. 

From  the  time  of  Robert  Guiscard,  Kephallenia 
remained  almost  continually  in  the  hands  of  some 
western  prince  or  other.  Toward  the  end  of  the 


KEPHALLENIA  313 

fifteenth  century,  however,  the  Turks  obtained  and 
held  the  island  for  about  twenty  years.  But  on 
Christmas  day  of  the  year  1500,  they  withdrew  for- 
ever, and  the  flag  of  Saint  Mark  of  Venice  was  floated 
from  the  heights  of  the  town  and  castle  of  Saint 
George.  From  that  day  down  to  1797,  Kephallenia 
belonged  to  the  doges. 

With  the  coming  of  the  Venetians  begins  a  period 
of  abundant  matter  for  the  constructing  of  the  later 
history  of  the  island.  The  Venetians  governed  their 
possessions  in  the  eastern  sea  by  representatives  who 
were  obliged  at  regular  intervals  to  present  to  the 
Venetian  council  detailed  reports  about  the  condition 
of  the  subject  countries.  Besides  these  reports  which 
were  forwarded  to  Venice,  and  are  still  preserved 
there,  each  island  had  its  local  archives,  and  the 
records  in  these  archives  have  not  been  entirely 
destroyed.  In  Kephallenia  there  is  preserved  a  great 
quantity  of  such  documents,  relating  to  events  that 
happened  between  the  year  1500  and  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century.  These  valuable  documents  are 
now  piled  up  in  a  damp  room  of  the  customs  house, 
and  their  historic  value  has  not  even  been  suspected 
by  the  managers  of  the  Greek  government.  The 
history  of  Kephallenia  even  for  this  period,  although 
better  studied  than  that  of  the  other  islands,  is  yet 
capable  of  the  greatest  improvement. 

Under  the  rule  of  Venice  the  island  prospered  to  a 
certain  extent.  It  certainly  would  have  prospered 
more  were  it  not  for  the  continual  destructive  feuds 
and  clan  enmities.  ,  These  feuds  took  more  threatening 
shape  from  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 


314  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

tury.  From  that  time  they  kept  the  country  in  tur- 
moil as  long  as  the  Venetian  dominion  lasted.  The 
feuds  were  chiefly  family  affairs  among  the  more 
powerful  clan-leaders.  The  Venetian  government 
never  regarded  these  domestic  feuds  as  serious.  They 
rendered  the  islanders  more  surely  unable  to  throw 
off  her  yoke.  Only  in  1760,  when  the  whole  island  of 
Kephallenia  seemed  about  to  be  deluged  in  a  feudal 
war  of  annihilation,  did  Venice  resort  to  drastic 
measures,  and  hanged  two  of  the  clan-leaders  in  front 
of  the  palace  of  the  doge  in  Venice. 

Even  after  the  departure  of  Venetian  rule  the  evil 
continued,  under  French  and  Russian  government. 
Only  when  the  more  resolute  and  perhaps  juster  hand 
of  England  took  the  guidance  of  the  islands  was  an 
end  put  to  these  feudal  wars  forever. 

Since  1797  French  and  Russians  and  English 
dominated  here  successively.  Of  all  these  masters 
none  but  the  Venetians  and  English  left  results  hard 
to  be  effaced,  lasting  mementos  of  their  domination. 
The  Venetians  left  their  stamp  on  the  customs  of  the 
upper-classes  of  the  people,  and  on  the  common  lan- 
guage. The  nobles  here  as  in  Kerkyra  had  almost 
ceased  to  speak  Greek.  Italian  was  the  language  of 
their  conversation  and  of  their  reading  and  writing. 
Reassertion,  however,  of  the  influence  of  the  people 
at  large  has  put  an  end  to  this  degrading  betrayal  of 
what  belongs  to  the  life  of  the  country  of  one's  hearth. 
Not  so  with  the  mementos  of  English  domination. 
The  English  handled  the  Kephallenians  in  a  way  not 
liable  to  make  friends.  Although  England  generally 
sided  with  the  Venetian  nobles  against  the  people, 


KEPHALLENIA  315 

until  she  finally  discovered  the  unprofitable  injustice 
of  doing  so,  yet  she  did  not  allow  the  nobles  to  act 
as  they  pleased.  What  made  England  become  a  bene- 
factor to  the  Kephallenians  forever  was  not  only  the 
destruction  of  feudal  strife,  but  the  material  improve- 
ment of  the  island.  Previously  but  few  roads  existed. 
England  cut  the  best  of  roads  in  every  direction.  She 
built  public  establishments,  founded  a  prosperous  bank, 
and  regulated  the  police  service. 

The  road-system  which  the  English  protectors  built 
on  the  island  is  the  greatest  and  most  lasting  result  of 
their  domination.  What  a  gigantic  piece  of  labor  it 
was  to  make  these  roads  is  apparent  only  when  one 
sees  by  actual  observation  that  most  of  the  island  is 
simply  a  bunch  of  rocky  heights.  The  glory  of  plan- 
ning and  making  these  roads  belongs  to  Sir  Charles 
Napier  and  his  engineer  Kennedy.  Napier  was  a  man 
of  humanity  as  well  as  of  phil-Hellenic  sentiments,  and 
could  not  endure  to  see  the  peasant  class  of  the  island 
oppressed  and  wronged  at  every  turn  by  the  chieftains 
and  their  followers.  The  impassable  quality  of  the  wild 
island,  through  lack  of  roads  connecting  the  various 
valleys,  made  it  difficult  for  the  government  to  inter- 
fere with  the  doings  of  the  chieftains  in  their  fast- 
nesses. One  of  Napier's  designs,  when  he  opened 
roads  in  every  direction,  was  not  only  to  make  an  exit 
for  the  despised  peasant  to  bring  his  fruit  to  market 
instead  of  giving  it  as  a  serf's  gift  to  his  landlord,  but 
also  to  enable  the  government  to  reach  the  feudal 
chieftains  in  their  strongholds.  Besides,  the  moun- 
tains were  full  of  refugees,  who,  having  committed 
some  crime  or  other,  forsook  the  well-policed  villages 


316  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  lived  as  banditti  among  the  secure  recesses  of  the 
rocks. 

These  refugees  were  practically  above  the  power  of 
the  law.  Both  landlord  and  peasant  found  it  advan- 
tageous and  safer  not  to  molest  but  rather  to  assist 
them.  Often,  however,  these  refugees  were  originally 
not  real  criminals,  but  men  who  could  not  pay  their 
taxes  and  bribes  to  the  petty  authorities.  Venetian 
rule  had  tended  to  destroy  all  respect  for  conscien- 
tious law  by  often  punishing  severely  for  technical  and 
small  offenses  as  well  as  for  large  and  heinous  crimes. 
This  policy  had  made  nearly  all  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Kephallenia  more  or  less  criminal,  in  a  technical 
sense.  The  idea  of  being  a  criminal  brought  with  it 
no  indelible  shame.  Accordingly  real  crime  increased, 
especially  crimes  of  violence.  The  archives  of  Venice 
contain  a  sober  report  sent  to  the  government  in  the 
year  1776,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  find  in  the  entire  island  one  man  who  had  not 
at  least  three  times  been  punished  in  some  way  or 
other  by  law.  This  state  of  affairs  Napier  undertook 
to  remedy  by  his  roads,  and  his  plan  did  not  fail  of 
good  result. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  roads  built  by  Napier 
leads  from  Argostolion,  the  capital  town  of  the  island, 
to  the  pine  forests  on  the  high  slopes  of  Mount  y£nos. 
Napier  built  the  latter  half  of  this  road  in  order  to 
bring  the  grand  forest  of  pines  within  the  reach  of 
use  and  protection.  The  pine  that  grows  on  this 
mountain  is  sufficiently  different  from  other  varieties 
as  to  merit  in  botany  a  name  of  its  own,  being  known 
as  abies  Cephalonica  Loud.  The  forest  begins  on  the 


KEPHALLENIA  317 

mountain  slope  at  the  height  of  about  three  thousand 
feet,  and  extends  upward  to  about  five  thousand  three 
hundred  feet.  As  this  mountain  is  the  only  one  in 
the  island  that  possesses  large  trees,  it  has  from  a  dis- 
tance a  peculiar  dark  color  which  contrasts  sharply 
with  the  lighter  colors  of  the  limestone  island,  and 
which  occasioned  the  Venetian  name  of  Monte  Nero, 
or  Black  Mountain.  TEnos  is  about  5,325  feet  high. 
On  account  of  its  imposing  appearance  it  was  in 
remote  antiquity  sacred  to  Zevs.  On  the  top  of  the 
mountain  there  was  an  altar  dedicated  to  this  deity. 
Travelers  who  have  ascended  to  the  summit  absurdly 
declare  that  round  about  where  the  altar  stood  are 
still  to  be  seen  heaps  of  bones,  remains  of  the  ancient 
sacrifices. 

The  view  from  the  top  of  ^Enos  is  indescribably 
sweet,  and  at  the  same  time  grand.  From  the  height 
of  5,325  feet,  one  stands  on  a  mountain  top  which  on 
two  sides  seems  to  rise  almost  out  of  the  water.  In 
almost  every  direction  the  view  is  clear  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  carry.  There  are  no  sharp  contrasts  of  color 
as  seen  among  the  Alps,  but  each  soft  shade  blends 
imperceptibly  into  its  nearest  different  hue.  Still  there 
is  a  sufficient  variety  of  landscape.  Sea  and  land, 
island  and  water  and  sky,  valley  and  crag,  green  vine- 
hills  and  diminutive  yellow  wheat-fields  all  blend  in 
enchanting  harmony.  Toward  the  west  is  the  bound- 
less sea  which  rolls  off  toward  Italy  and  Africa. 
Toward  the  south  in  the  blue  waters  is  Zakynthos 
with  its  green  and  violet  shades.  Beyond  Zakynthos 
in  the  misty  distance  winds  the  crooked  coast  of  the 
Peloponnesos  from  the  mediaeval  fort  of  Clarence  to 


318  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  port  of  Navarino  where  the  united  fleets  of 
Europe  under  the  guidance  of  Admiral  Codrington 
destroyed  the  Turkish  fleet  in  1827.  Toward  the  east 
one  looks  right  into  the  quiet  waters  where  in  1571 
the  ships  of  Don  Juan  won  their  victory  over  the  hosts 
of  the  Moslem  in  the  battle  of  Lepanto.  How  quiet 
these  blue  waters  now  are,  freed  from  Moslem  and 
pirate.  North  of  this  ancient  battle-place  appears  the 
island  of  Levkas,  with  the  romantic  promontory  of 
"Sappho's  Leap."  Between  Levkas  and  Kephallenia, 
and  separated  from  either  by  only  a  narrow  strait,  is 
the  charming  island  which  tradition  claims  to  be 
Homeric  Ithaka.  Closer  are  the  various  shapes  and 
colors  of  the  island  of  Kephallenia  itself.  From  this 
point  the  beholder  feasts  eye  and  soul  on  beauty  of 
color  and  harmony  of  outline,  and  on  the  history  of 
world-shaking  events  which  cover  a  period  of  almost 
three  thousand  years,  and  which  happened  in  the  inno- 
cent regions  at  his  feet. 

Another  cherished  plan  of  Napier's  was  to  increase 
the  population  of  the  island  by  introducing  colonists 
from  abroad.  The  number  of  inhabitants  had,  on 
account  of  the  continual  raids  of  Goth  and  Vandal  and 
conqueror  and  Turk,  never  risen  to  what  it  ought  to 
be  for  the  material  prosperity  of  the  island.  Only 
after  the  battle  of  Lepanto  did  the  number  of  inhabit- 
ants gradually  begin  to  increase.  Napier's  plan  was 
to  introduce  workmen,  who,  understanding  how  to  till 
the  mountain  country,  could  find  a  source  of  com- 
fortable subsistence  in  Kephallenia.  He  had  observed 
the  industry  of  the  peasants  of  Malta,  and  the  skill 
with  which  they  tilled  their  hills.  Accordingly  he 


KEPHALLENIA  319 

asked  the  English  government  to  facilitate  the  immi- 
gration of  three  hundred  Maltese  peasants  to  Kephal- 
lenia.  The  English  government,  instead  of  complying 
with  his  request,  sent  him  three  hundred  stubborn 
criminals  from  the  prisons  of  Malta.  Napier  did  not 
despair  of  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  although  he 
complained  bitterly  of  this  action  of  his  government. 
He  planted  his  colony  at  the  east  foot  of  ^Enos,  near 
where  the  ancient  city  of  the  Pronians  had  prospered. 
But  Napier  was  called  away  from  his  beloved  Kephal- 
lenia,  and  was  succeeded  by  others  not  so  deeply  earn- 
est in  sympathy  with  the  progress  of  the  country. 
After  a  few  years  the  Maltese  colonists  had  all  for- 
saken their  new  homes,  most  of  them  being,  by  pre- 
vious life,  worthless  fellows.  They  abandoned  their 
gardens  and  turned  to  begging  as  soon  as  Napier's 
tutelage  was  withdrawn.  The  huts  of  New  Malta, 
now  tumbling  down,  with  not  a  single  inhabitant,  lie 
near  the  ruins  of  its  proud  predecessor  the  Pronian 
city.  The  visitor  to  the  one  set  of  ruins  sees  also  the 
other.  The  region  is  entirely  deserted.  Malarial 
fevers  often  attack  the  peasants  who  descend  into  the 
valley  of  New  Malta  to  cultivate  its  fertile  fields. 
Indeed  this  prevalence  of  fever  in  the  Pronian  district 
was  one  of  the  reasons  that  influenced  the  Maltese 
colonists  to  prefer  the  profession  of  pauperism  to  that 
of  agriculturists. 

On  this  island  of  Kephallenia,  wherever  the  country 
is  not  perfectly  open  to  the  breezes  from  the  sea,  the 
climate  is  malarious,  and  causes  what  may  be  called 
"mountain  fever."  High  and  perfectly  dry  regions, 
simply  from  the  fact  that  the  surrounding  mountain 


320  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

tops  exclude  the  breezes  that  would  continually 
replenish  the  atmosphere  with  new  air,  are  compara- 
tively unhealthy  localities.  This  is  the  much  more 
noteworthy  because  such  other  parts  of  the  island  as 
are  blessed  by  being  sufficiently  open  to  the  winds 
from  the  sea  are  among  the  most  healthy  parts  of 
Greece,  which  is  to  assert  very  much.  Argostolion  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  best  winter  places  in  the  Medi- 
terranean for  persons  of  weak  lungs. 

Near  the  town  of  Argostolion,  an  Englishman 
named  Stevens,  strolling  along  the  bay  one  evening 
some  seventy  years  ago,  discovered  that  water  from 
the  sea  was  flowing  in  large  quantities  into  crevices 
among  the  rocks  along  the  shore,  and  that  the  crevices 
did  not  seem  to  be  filling  with  the  water  that  kept  con- 
tinually running  in.  He  later  examined  the  phenome- 
non more  carefully,  and  becoming  convinced  that  the 
quantity  of  water  incessantly  running  landward  from 
the  sea  seemed  sufficient  to  be  made  use  of  as  a  motive 
power,  he  caused  a  channel  to  be  cut  for  the  collect- 
ing of  the  water,  and  erected  a  flour  mill.  The  stream 
of  water  from  the  sea  actually  proved  to  be  strong 
enough  to  supply  power  for  the  mill.  Shortly  after- 
ward a  second  mill  was  built.  Both  are  still  in  opera- 
tion. Accordingly  we  have  here  the  phenomenon  of 
streams  of  water  flowing,  not  as  is  common,  from  the 
land  into  the  sea,  but  from  the  sea  into  the  land. 
After  running  the  distance  of  about  fifty  yards,  turn- 
ing the  mill-wheels  on  its  way,  the  water  suddenly 
disappears  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks.  Where  it  goes 
to  has  not  yet  been  discovered.  Five  hundred  thou- 
sand gallons  daily  flow  through  these  channels.  Num- 


KEPHALLENIA  321 

bers  of  physicists  have  studied  the  phenomenon,  and 
no  explanation  has  as  yet  met  with  general  acceptance. 
Were  it  not  for  the  scarcity  of  water  the  island 
would  be  wonderfully  fertile.  Running  water  is 
almost  unknown.  Springs  are  very  rare  in  the 
mountain  regions.  The  shepherds  have  to  draw  water 
for  their  flocks  from  deep  artificial  wells.  And  the 
flocks  of  Kephallenia  are  in  respect  to  drinking  reputed 
to  be  exceptionally  abstemious.  Aristotle,  in  his  book 
on  Wonderful  Facts,  states  a  belief  that  goats  in 
Kephallenia  do  not  need  water,  but  that  every  day 
they  turn  their  heads  to  the  sea  and  with  open  mouths 
imbibe  the  moist  winds.  ^Elianos,  another  ancient 
writer,  asserts  that  the  goats  of  Kephallenia  pass  six 
months  every  year  without  drinking.  The  Latin 
author  Valerius  Maximus  adds  his  testimony  saying 
that  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year  goats  need  no 
water  here : 

In  Cephalonia  insula,  cum  omnia  ubique  pecora  haustu 
aquae  quotidie  recreentur,  in  ea  pecudes  majore  ex  parte  anni 
ore  aperto  ex  alto  ventos  recipientes  sitim  suam  sedare. 

The  Kephallenian  wines  are  of  a  superior  quality. 
A  noted  variety  of  muscatel  is  produced  in  limited 
quantities.  In  the  flourishing  days  of  the  Republic 
of  Venice,  every  aristocrat  of  that  city  considered  it 
as  de  rigeur  to  have  a  decanter  of  Kephallenian  mus- 
catel on  his  table. 

Two  enterprising  natives  of  the  island,  the  brothers 
Toul,  have  established  an  immense  vinario,  and  have 
begun  to  send  these  fine  wines  to  Europe,  finding  a 
market  for  them  chiefly  in  Germany.  The  Toul  broth- 


322  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

ers  are  Greeks,  in  so  far  as  men  can  be  said  to  be 
Greeks,  who  are  descended  straight  from  the  O'Tooles. 

In  connection  with  the  ancestral  nationality  of  the 
founders  of  this  vinario,  it  occurs  to  me  to  mention 
another  case,  showing  the  cosmopolitan  character  of 
the  children  of  Erin.  On  this  occasion  of  my  visit 
to  Kephallenia,  the  director  of  the  schools  of  inter- 
mediate instruction,  wishing  to  demonstrate  to  me  the 
excellence  of  the  education  provided  for  girls  in  the 
town  of  Argostolion,  brought  me  to  an  academy  for 
young  ladies.  The  lesson  happened  to  be  that  of 
ancient  Greek.  The  maidens  read  their  Lysias  with 
the  ease  of  a  story-book,  and  explained  the  text  with 
the  solemnity  of  a  Scotch  professor  of  Scripture. 
Their  intelligence  so  impressed  me  that  I  inquired  into 
the  history  of  the  school.  Imagine  my  surprise,  if 
not  also  my  pride,  when  I  heard  that  this  nursery  of 
the  newer  Hellenism  where  the  daughters  of  the 
ancient  clans  are  trained  in  the  language  of  Sappho 
and  Korinna,  had  been  founded  by  a  Miss  Murphy. 
Although  quite  old  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  she  yet 
continued  to  direct  the  school  as  a  kind  of  president 
of  honor.  A  visit  to  her  and  her  sister  at  their  home 
showed  again  the  adaptability  and  ubiquity  of  the 
children  of  Ireland.  For  I  learned  that  Miss  Mur- 
phy's sister  had  married  an  old  Greek  chieftain's  son, 
and  that  their  boy  was  at  that  time  serving  under  the 
"stars  and  stripes"  with  Dewey,  as  volunteer  in  the 
American  fleet  at  Manila. 

Before  closing,  it  is  proper  to  add  a  few  words 
about  the  principal  town  of  the  island,  Argostolion. 
It  is  comparatively  a  new  city.  Its  official  existence 


KEPHALLENIA  323 

dates  from  the  year  1757.  Its  harbor  is  one  of  the 
best  and  safest  in  the  Mediterranean.  Near  this 
fine  harbor  there  always  has  been  a  city,  as  far  back 
as  history  reaches.  For,  distant  by  walk  of  an  hour 
and  a  half  from  Argostolion  is  the  ruined  city  and 
castle  of  St.  George,  now  inhabited  chiefly  by  a  colony 
of  shoemakers,  who  live  among  the  crumbling  ruins  of 
what  was  three  hundred  years  ago  one  of  the  richest 
and  proudest  cities  of  all  the  Venetian  possessions.  St. 
George  was  first  built  when  the  town  of  Krane,  which 
lay  nearer  to  the  harbor,  was  destroyed.  Now  it  is 
a  sign  of  the  vanity  of  the  past.  True,  the  view  from 
its  crumbling  citadel  is  as  glorious  as  ever.  But,  save 
the  glory  of  surrounding  nature,  nothing  remains 
except  ruins  and  oppressive  memories.  Once  there 
shone  here  the  glorious  pomp  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
which  through  the  Capuchins  took  care  of  the  western 
Christians  in  the  island.  To  such  an  extent  was  the 
order  of  St.  Francis  here  revered,  that  the  shield  of 
the  order  became  the  coat  of  arms  of  Kephallenia. 
Now,  however,  the  beautiful  churches,  cracked  and 
broken  by  earthquake,  and  rotting  by  neglect,  are  fall- 
ing down  arch  by  arch.  All  the  noble  Italians  that 
once  added  the  glitter  of  their  presence  to  the  mag- 
nificent displays  in  gorgeous  processions  and  other 
festive  religious  ceremonies  of  Latin  ritual,  have 
made  an  easy  transit  to  the  Greek  from  the  Roman 
form  of  worship. 

The  inscriptions  that  adorned  the  gateways  and 
walls,  consecrating  the  glories  of  days  that  are  gone, 
are  growing  unreadable  before  anyone  has  copied 
them  for  historians  of  the  future.  Not  without  dis- 


324  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

gust  did  I  recollect  that  while  three  fat  Capuchins  still 
occupy  their  ancestral  house  in  Argostolion  and  in  a 
routine  way  care  for  the  half-dozen  Maltese  families 
that  live  round  them,  I  should  see  the  old  castle  strewn 
with  records  and  reminders  of  the  former  power  and 
influence  of  their  great  order  here.  Especially  did 
this  thought  haunt  me,  as  I  sat  copying  some  inscrip- 
tions while  a  son  of  a  cobbler  took  up  the  fragment 
of  an  inscribed  stone  and  with  it  broke  walnuts  on 
another  engraved  stone  now  lying  in  the  dust,  but 
which  once  had  stood  over  the  altar  of  St.  Francis, 
and  commemorated  privileges  granted  to  the  Capuchin 
friars  of  the  castle  by  Pope  Benedict  the  Fourteenth. 


THE  MANIATS 

The  southern  extremity  of  Greece  is  a  wild  and 
rugged  land.  It  consists  of  an  almost  naked  ridge  of 
rock  which  extends  out  into  the  azure  sea,  a  towering 
promontory.  Its  inhabitants  partake  of  the  nature  of 
their  cliffs.  They  are  fierce  and  rugged  and  unchange- 
able. The  whole  land  is  simply  the  up-bluffed  end  of 
a  mountain  range.  The  villages  are  either  perched 
ahigh  like  eagles'  eyries  on  the  stony  slopes  or  are 
nestled  along  the  coast  near  convenient  harbors.  Both 
slopes  of  the  mountain  are  possessed  by  the  same 
people.  This  is  the  Taygetos  mountain  range,  the 
loftiest  of  the  Peloponnesos,  unless  Kyllene's  peak  be 
higher.  "Five-Fingers"  was  the  name  of  the  range 
in  the  Byzantine  Ages.  The  highest  "finger"  is  seen 
best  when  looking  toward  the  west  from  Sparta.  Its 
tip  is  7,900  feet  higher  than  the  harbor-waters  of  the 
coast-towns. 

The  extreme  end  of  Taygetos  forms  the  promon- 
tory of  Taenaron.  Mediaeval  sailors  feared  it  for  its 
stormy  seas  and  its  numerous  pirates.  They  called 
it  Matapan.  Tsenaron  is  of  all  Europe  the  point  near- 
est to  the  equator.  In  antiquity  it  was  sacred  to  Posei- 
don, the  master-deity  of  the  sea.  A  noble  temple 
which  was  very  holy  was  dedicated  to  him  there.  No 
refugee,  even  a  slave,  who  succeeded  in  escaping  into 
this  shrine  could  be  dragged  off  to  punishment.  Here 
every  runaway  had  safe  asylum.  Here,  near  to  the 
temple  was  a  fissure  in  the  rocks  which  led  down  to 

325 


326  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  abode  of  Plouton  and  the  nether  world.  Through 
this  entrance  did  Herakles  go  down  to  Hades  and 
through  this  exit  did  he  drag  up  the  three-headed 
watch-dog  of  the  kingdom  of  the  dead. 

By  nature  this  country  of  Mane  is  divided  into 
three  parts.  One  part  is  the  region  round  Cape 
Tsenaron,  and  the  other  parts  are  the  eastern  and 
western  slopes  of  Taygetos.  The  region  around 
Tsenaron  is  the  wildest  of  all.  But  a  description  of  it 
cannot  be  greatly  untrue  for  the  other  two  parts.  In 
most  provinces  of  the  Peloponnesos  the  stranger  who 
asks  regarding  the  number  of  inhabitants  dwelling  in 
a  town  is  in  answer  informed  of  how  many  political 
votes  the  town  possesses.  In  Mane,  this  question  used 
to  be  answered  by  stating  the  number  of  guns  in  town. 
This  shows  the  character  of  the  inhabitants.  No  man 
went  about  unarmed.  Even  boys  from  nine  years  and 
upward  carried  pistols  in  their  belts.  This  southern 
region  is  most  barren  and  arid.  Water  is  scarce. 
There  are  very  few  springs  and  no  running  brooks. 
Water  is  collected  in  the  rainy  season  in  immense  cis- 
terns. These  are  kept  locked,  and  the  owners  permit 
water  to  be  drawn  therefrom  only  on  receipt  of  pay- 
ment. Vegetation  is  scanty  and  short-lived.  There 
are  no  forests  in  the  southern  part.  Fuel  for  fire  is 
not  to  be  had  save  in  most  limited  quantities.  Accord- 
ingly the  natives  make  bread  and  bake  it  only  twice 
or  thrice  in  a  year,  heating  the  ovens  therefor  with 
the  planks  of  some  decayed  canoe  or  the  knotty  wood 
of  some  dead  olive  tree.  This  bread,  dried  of  all 
moisture,  is  kept  stored  away.  Before  being  eaten  it 
is  softened  by  being  soaked  in  water. 


THE  MANIATS  327 

In  Mane  there  are  no  farms  of  great  extent.  But 
wherever  the  rocks  allow  it,  wherever  the  smallest 
quantity  of  soil  can  be  kept  together,  the  industry  of 
the  Maniats  is  apparent.  They  build  terraces  of  stone 
to  keep  the  thin  earth  from  being  washed  away  by 
the  rains,  and  plant  it  with  lupines,  the  chief  food  of 
the  Maniat  mountaineers.  The  other  most  valuable 
products  are  oil,  olives,  honey,  and  acorns.  Vineyards 
scarcely  exist,  and  wine  is  in  many  villages  an  almost 
unknown  luxury.  At  certain  seasons  of  the  year 
quails  abound  here.  When  migrating  to  the  warmer 
climes  of  Africa  or  Krete,  this  is  their  last  resting 
place  on  the  European  continent.  They  are  caught 
in  countless  numbers  round  port  "Quaglio,"  and 
packed  and  sent  not  only  to  other  parts  of  Greece  but 
to  Italy  and  northern  Europe. 

This  region  came  to  be  known  as  Mane  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  earliest  appearance  of  the  name, 
so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  is  in  the  writings  of  the 
emperor  Konstantin  Porphyrogennetos,  who  speaks 
of  a  castle  called  Maina,  in  this  region.  Ruins  of 
Maina  castle  still  can  be  seen.  The  origin  of  the 
Maniats  is  a  puzzle.  It  has  been  stated  that  they  are 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Lakons.  In  the  high  days 
of  ancient  Greece  all  this  country  was  under  the 
government  of  Sparta.  But  not  all  the  inhabitants  pos- 
sessed the  right  of  being  citizens  of  the  Spartan  com- 
monwealth. Those  who  were  not  slaves,  but  yet  were 
not  citizens  lived  in  the  smaller  towns  of  the  Spartan 
territory.  These  were  the  Lakons.  But  after  Greece 
had  bcome  a  Roman  possession,  then  the  Roman 
emperors  gave  autonomy  to  the  Lakons,  and  dealt 


328  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

with  them  directly,  without  the  intermediation  of 
Sparta.  They  thus  came  to  be  called  "the  Free 
Lakons."  And  as  the  Free  Lakons  dwelt  chiefly  in 
the  regions  which  the  Maniats  now  possess,  it  has 
been  supposed  not  gratuitously  that  the  Maniats  are 
the  offspring  of  the  ancient  Free  Lakons.  Occupying 
a  country  that  has  no  attractions  for  immigrants,  and 
being  isolated  from  the  other  Peloponnesians,  the 
natives  here  probably  have  kept  a  good  deal  of  pure 
Greek  blood,  be  it  Lakonic  or  not.  There  are  never- 
theless among  them  some  traces  of  Slavic  and  Albanian 
mixture. 

Their  tenacity  of  paganism  was  remarkable.  In 
the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  century  they  still  worshiped 
the  old  gods  according  to  the  old  rites.  Probably  not 
often  had  missionaries  ascended  to  these  eyries.  Por- 
phyrogennetos  speaks  of  them  as  heathens.  But  in 
the  tenth  century  the  holy  Nikon,  whom  the  eastern 
division  of  the  church  commemorates  as  "the  apostle 
of  Lakonia,"  succeeded  in  inducing  them  to  change 
their  Hellenic  rituals  for  that  of  Byzantion.  The 
Maniats  still  point  out  the  cell  where  the  hermit  used 
to  dwell  and  the  church  where  he  used  to  perform  the 
liturgy.  The  mountain  top  where  these  shrines  exist 
is  called  by  his  name.  It  is  a  mighty  honor  to  have  a 
mountain  for  a  monument. 

But  it  is  not  the  same  to  be  ritually  Christianized 
as  it  is  to  be  civilized  in  harmony  with  the  tenets  of 
the  gospel.  These  are  not  interchangeable  terms. 
The  Maniats  adopted  the  ritual  of  the  Christians,  but 
not  so  thoroughly  the  evangel  of  the  Nazarene  teacher. 

As  long  as  Greece  constituted  a  part  of  the  pos- 


THE  MANIATS  329 

sessions  of  Byzantion,  the  Maniats  were  scarcely  men- 
tioned in  the  records  of  Byzantine  chronography. 
But  when  from  the  thirteenth  century  Greece  became 
a  prize  first  of  western  crusaders  and  their  successors, 
and  afterward  of  Turkish  conquerors,  the  Maniats 
repeatedly,  if  not  almost  continually,  made  their 
would-be  oppressors  understand  that  the  Maniats 
could  not  learn  how  to  submit  to  any  will  save  their 
own.  William  Villeharduin,  however,  with  his 
Prankish  knights,  was  able  to  bend  them  into  external 
submission.  He  built  two  forts,  one  at  Maina  east  of 
Taygetos  and  the  other  at  Levktron  on  the  west  side, 
so  as  to  hold  the  mountaineers  in  compulsory  subjec- 
tion. But  the  Franks  were  not  oppressive  masters. 

When  the  Byzantine  empire  finally  succumbed 
before  the  Moslems  in  the  year  1453,  the  region  of 
Mane  was  under  the  nominal  control  of  the  Venetian 
republic.  But  twenty-six  years  later  the  republic  con- 
cluded a  disadvantageous  peace  with  the  Moslems, 
yielding  up  to  them  many  of  the  countries  that  she 
had  long  been  master  of.  Mane  was  handed  over  to 
Turkish  authority.  But  the  Maniat  hero  Korkodil 
Kladas  raised  the  standard  of  rebellion  against  the  new 
despots.  He  objected  to  Moslem  control,  and  seeing 
that  the  Venetians  could  not  protect  him,  or  would 
not,  he  tried  to  enlist  the  interest  of  Ferdinand  the  king 
of  Naples.  At  first  his  success  was  encouraging.  He 
drove  the  Moslem  soldiers  from  the  slopes  of  the  Tay- 
getos, and  compelled  them  to  evacuate  twenty-nine 
castles.  But  finally  his  resources  failed  him,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  flee  to  Naples,  after  seeing  his  country- 
men bend  to  the  Turkish  yoke,  at  least  nominally. 


330  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Korkodil's  insurrection  was  the  first  serious  and 
spirited  one  which  the  Maniats  as  such  ever  made 
against  their  conquerors.  But  from  this  noble  attempt 
down  to  the  day  when  the  irresistible  Ibrahim  with  his 
army  of  Arabs  found  it  impossible  to  invade  the  stern 
country  of  the  Maniats,  Mane  was  the  almost  impreg- 
nable home  of  a  wild  and  brigand-like  freedom  where 
tyrants'  messengers  seldom  dared  to  approach,  and 
where  every  spark  of  dissent  against  authority  was 
liable  to  burst  out  into  a  flame  of  merciless  insurrec- 
tion. 

In  the  year  1612,  a  European  adventurer,  Charles 
the  duke  of  Nevers,  in  whose  veins  there  flowed  some 
of  the  blood  of  the  imperial  Palseologs  of  Constanti- 
nople, began  to  agitate  a  plan  by  which  he  hoped  to 
restore  the  throne  of  Christian  Byzantion  and  estab- 
lish himself  as  emperor.  The  Maniats,  hearing  of  his 
projects,  immediately  adopted  his  ideas,  and  sent  a 
messenger  to  him  in  Rome.  They  requested  him  to 
come  at  once  and  assume  lordship  over  the  Pelopon- 
nesos.  But  Charles  of  Nevers  was  not  destined  to  be 
as  great  as  were  his  aspirations,  and  his  plans  came 
to  naught.  Two  years  later  the  capudan-pasha  paid 
a  grievous  visit  to  Mane,  and  placed  strong  garrisons 
in  the  forts,  and  made  regulations  for  the  payment  of 
the  tribute  which  the  Porte  desired  to  collect. 

The  Maniats  were  again  honorably  mentioned  in 
1645.  In  that  year  the  Turks  with  a  mighty  army 
and  fleet  besieged  the  city  of  Kanea  in  Krete.  The 
Venetians  who  held  Kanea  defended  it  bravely  and 
sent  death  to  30,000  of  the  assailants.  No  one  came 
to  their  assistance.  The  Maniats,  however,  hearing  of 


THE  MANIATS  331 

the  siege,  wished  to  go  to  the  succor  of  the  besieged 
Christians,  but  could  not  procure  ships  to  bring  them 
to  Krete  in  time.  This  willingness  of  the  Maniats  to 
fight  against  the  armies  of  the  Porte  occasioned  a  new 
visitation  of  the  capudan-pasha,  who  this  time  took 
measures  to  impose  the  haratch  or  annual  poll  tax 
which  all  other  rajas  were  supposed  to  pay  in  order  to 
have  the  privilege  of  wearing  their  heads  for  the  ensu- 
ing year.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  the 
haratch  was  ever  actually  collected  in  Mane  or  not. 

In  the  year  1685,  the  Maniats  joined  the  gallant 
and  eminent  Morosini,  who  freed  them  from  Turkish 
thraldom  for  a  while,  and  placed  them  under  his 
country's  protection.  From  this  time  on,  the  Maniats 
made  rapid  progress  in  their  spirit  of  independence 
and  in  ethnic  pride.  In  1715,  however,  they  again 
came  under  the  dominion  of  the  Moslems. 

Their  next  eventful  insurrection  happened  in  the 
year  1770.  Catharine  the  Second  of  Russia,  in  order 
to  further  her  own  designs,  used  to  flatter  and  patron- 
ize the  Greeks.  Being  about  to  begin  a  war  against 
Turkey  she,  by  means  of  secret  agents,  fomented 
among  the  Greeks  a  new  rebellion,  promising  them 
all  kinds  of  assistance.  The  Greeks  were  so  much  the 
more  easily  ensnared  because  they  regarded  the  Rus- 
sians as  defenders  of  the  eastern  church.  In  this  insur- 
rection the  Maniats  took  a  leading  part.  But  after  a 
short  time  Catharine  made  peace  with  the  Porte,  with- 
out stipulating  for  the  welfare  of  the  Greeks  whom 
she  had  incited  to  danger.  The  Porte  filled  the  Pelo- 
ponnesos  with  savage  Albanian  hordes  of  soldiery, 
who  spread  destruction  and  robbery  and  death  in 


332  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

every  hamlet  and  village  and  town.  Fortunately 
Mane  did  not  suffer  so  severely.  But  nevertheless  the 
Maniats  had  again  to  recognize  Turkish  rule. 

In  this  insurrection  of  1770  there  prominently 
appeared  the  name  of  a  family  which  ever  since  has 
acted  an  important  role  in  the  history  of  Mane.  This 
is  the  Mavromichal  family.  To  the  rolls  of  honor  it 
has  furnished  names  which  the  Hellenic  race  will 
never  forget.  The  best  men  of  this  house  fell  in 
battle  in  different  wars  for  their  fatherland.  In  the 
insurrection  of  1770,  the  chief  leader  of  the  Maniats 
was  Skylo  Yannis  Mavromichal.  His  mother  was 
not  a  Greek,  it  seems,  and  came  into  the  country  of 
the  Maniats  in  some  mysterious  way.  Maniat  song 
and  story  regarded  her  as  a  supernatural  being,  and 
have  called  her  the  "nereid"  or  "fairy."  Skylo 
Yannis,  the  fairy's  son,  and  twenty-four  followers, 
shut  themselves  up  in  a  tower  and  for  two  days 
defended  themselves  against  a  Turkish  army  of  five 
thousand.  The  Russians  who  were  not  far  away  took 
advantage  of  the  bravery  of  Skylo  Yannis  and  used 
it  as  a  convenient  opportunity  of  escaping  to  their 
ships.  Skylo  Yannis  and  his  followers  all  perished. 

At  times  an  uncontrolled  love  for  liberty  may  lead 
to  disastrous  consequences.  It  led  two  noble  members 
of  the  house  of  the  Mavromichals  to  the  act  of  assassi- 
nating Count  Kapodistrias,  the  president  of  regener- 
ated Greece,  in  1828.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  • 
personal  motives  were  as  strong  in  causing  this  crime 
as  was  the  love  of  freedom.  Kapodistrias  had  hum- 
bled the  Mavromichal  family  in  various  ways.  The 
result  was  that  on  a  Sunday  in  October,  as  Kapodis- 


THE  MANIATS  333 

trias  was  about  to  enter  the  church  of  Saint  Spyridon 
in  Navplion,  he  was  met  at  the  door  by  Georgios  and 
Konstantin  Mavromichal,  and  was  shot  to  death. 

After  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  of  1770, 
the  Porte  adopted  a  more  efficacious  plan  for  keeping 
the  Maniats  quiet.  One  of  the  eight  higher  chieftains 
of  the  land  was  honored  by  Turkey  with  the  special 
title  of  "bey,"  and  was  appointed  to  be  highest  local 
governor  of  the  country,  with  the  duty  of  collecting 
the  taxes,  suppressing  piracy,  and  keeping  order.  In 
this  way  the  Maniats  became  more  or  less  actual  sub- 
jects of  the  sultan.  Their  bondage,  however,  was  never 
severe  like  that  of  other  rajahs.  They  never  were  re- 
quired to  submit  to  the  "psedomazoma,"  or  contribution 
of  young  boys  who  were  to  be  trained  as  Moslems  and 
janizzaries.  The  taxes  which  they  were  obliged  to 
pay  were  very  slight.  And  the  manner  in  which  they 
paid  them  is  incredibly  proud.  The  collector  came 
only  to  the  boundary  of  Mane.  He  did  not  enter 
Maniatic  territory.  A  purse  containing  the  tribute 
money  was  stuck  on  the  end  of  a  saber  and  thrust 
across  the  boundary-line  to  the  humble  collector. 

When  Napoleon  was  at  the  beginning  of  his  great 
career,  he  received  at  Milan  a  letter  from  the  bey  of 
Mane,  inviting  him  to  come  into  the  Peloponnesos. 
The  idea  pleased  Napoleon,  and  he  sent  the  brothers 
Stephanopoli  as  envoys  into  Mane  to  study  the  country 
for  him.  But  shortly  afterward,  circumstances  per- 
suaded Napoleon  to  prefer  to  go  to  Egypt,  and  thus  the 
dream  which  he  had  of  restoring  the  throne  of  the 
successors  of  Constantine  the  Great  and  occupying  it 


334  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

himself,  never  went  farther  than  this  preliminary 
exchange  of  preparatory  ideas. 

It  may  not  be  entirely  inappropriate  here  to  men- 
tion that  an  unfounded  assertion  has  often  declared 
that  Napoleon  was  himself  a  Maniat  by  descent  The 
story  is  based  on  the  fact  that  in  the  year  1673  a 
number  of  Maniat  families  belonging  to  the  clan  of 
the  Stephanopoli  family  left  their  homes  and  emi- 
grated westward,  finally  settling  in  Corsica.  Their 
descendants  still  exist  in  that  wild  island.  From  these 
Maniat  exiles  have  certain  romancing  flatterers  tried 
to  derive  the  family  of  the  Bonapartes.  In  the  year 
1767,  a  second  colony  departed  from  Mane  to  escape 
oppression.  They  went  to  Florida  in  America.  It 
would  be  interesting  to  know  their  later  fate. 

When  the  great  insurrection  of  1821,  which 
brought  freedom  to  Greece,  was  about  to  burst  out, 
the  Maniats  again  were  with  the  foremost.  As  soon 
as  the  war  began,  the  Maniats  assembled  and  attacked 
and  captured  the  Messenian  town  of  Kalamata.  Then, 
on  the  fifth  of  April,  1821,  this  rude  army  of  five 
thousand  wild  warriors  gathered  on  the  shore  of  the 
Nedon  creek  near  Kalamata,  and  with  greatest  splen- 
dor and  pomp,  such  as  is  possible  only  in  the  eastern 
church,  they  sang  a  liturgical  doxology,  in  which 
twenty-five  priests  officiated.  It  was  the  first  free 
outburst  of  the  joy  of  returning  liberty.  About  the 
same  time  Petrombey  Mavromichal,  the  Maniat  leader, 
issued  a  proclamation  to  Europe,  justifying  the  insur- 
rection and  asking  for  sympathy  and  support. 

Mane  is  one  of  those  corners  of  the  earth  expressly 
made  for  such  as  wish  to  resist  the  rule  of  tyranny, 


THE  MANIATS  335 

and  to  enjoy  rude  liberty.  The  Maniat  cannot  under- 
stand how  an  extensive  and  expanded  and  multitudi- 
nous nation  can  enjoy  freedom  and  yet  be  subject  to 
one  powerful  central  government.  He  is  not  capable 
of  contentedly  living  a  fellow-subject  with  other 
Greeks,  all  under  one  head.  "Mane  for  the  Maniats," 
is  what  he  can  understand.  His  idea  of  liberty  goes 
no  farther.  Perhaps  this  is  the  true  idea  of  liberty. 
But  today  it  is  not  the  prevailing  and  permitted  one. 
The  old  Maniats  recognized  willingly  no  authority 
save  that  of  their  clan-chief  and  the  head  of  their 
church,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

The  Maniats  were  not  only  continually  at  war  with 
their  common  oppressors,  but  were  also  continually  at 
war  with  each  other,  clan  against  clan,  or  often  family 
against  family.  Feuds  began  which  lasted  for  gener- 
ations. Only  in  Corsica  and  in  Montenegro  have  the 
feuds  been  so  ferocious  as  here,  and  so  unquenchable. 
Each  prominent  family  lived  in  a  tower  which  was 
capable  of  withstanding  a  protracted  siege.  In  the 
year  1834,  eight  hundred  of  these  towers  still  were 
erect  and  occupied.  The  men  often  remained  shut 
up  within  these  towers  for  not  only  months  but  even 
years.  Fortunately  the  law  of  the  vendetta  affected 
only  the  men.  The  women  might  go  about  freely, 
and  it  often  happened  that  the  women  of  opposite 
clans  who  were  at  war  of  vendetta  against  each  other, 
might  go  out  unmolested  and  meet  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  their  enemies,  while  buying  powder  and 
provisions  for  their  besieged  or  besieging  lords. 

During  the  ages  in  which  they  were  subject  to 
Turkey,  the  Maniats  were  noted  as  pirates,  and 


336  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

dreaded  as  such.  The  corsairs  from  these  towns  were 
almost  as  much  to  be  feared  as  were  those  of  Algiers. 
Living  in  a  country  that  did  not  produce  enough  to 
keep  them  alive,  and  by  experience  of  long  ages  taught 
to  think  that  the  world  and  its  goods  belong  to  those 
who  can  capture  them,  they  naturally  acquired  a  love 
for  the  wild  manner  of  support  that  comes  from 
brigandage  and  piracy.  Their  three  worst  character- 
istics therefore  were  their  love  for  piracy,  their 
readiness  to  commit  acts  of  brigandage,  and  their 
tenaciousness  for  the  law  of  the  vendetta. 

But  they  had  virtues.  And  their  virtues  were 
remarkable.  They  not  only  worshiped  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  as  we  have  seen,  but  were  and  are  wonderfully 
brave,  manly,  frugal,  abstemious,  and  are  always  true 
to  their  beautiful  women.  Such  are  the  Maniats. 


MESOLONGHION 

The  pilgrim  who  sees  Mesolonghion  is  amazed.  He 
has  read  about  the  heroic  behavior  of  its  inhabitants 
when  they  sustained  two  fearful  sieges.  He  has  seen 
perhaps  other  cities  that  have  gloriously  suffered  long- 
protracted  beleaguerments,  and  he  vividly  can  repicture 
in  his  memory  the  steep  and  rocky  acclivities  that  aided 
in  keeping  the  assailants  at  bay,  the  massive  and  lofty 
crenellated  walls  that  seemed  proudly  to  defy  all  rash 
and  daring  approach  of  hostile  power,  the  impassable 
moats,  the  impregnable  bastions,  the  hidden  guns. 
But  no  frowning  barriers,  whether  of  nature  or  of 
art,  ever  girdled  the  town  of  the  stubbornly  brave 
Mesolonghians.  It  lies  on  the  level  sand  and  alluvial 
earth  that  stretches  from  the  mouth  of  the  Evenos  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Acheloos.  Its  niveau  is  only  two  or 
three  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea.  The  azure 
waters  of  the  Korinthiac  Gulf  which  lap  its  southern 
side  are  the  only  defensive  advantages  which  nature 
has  given.  These  waters  are  too  shallow  for  the 
approach  of  any  kind  of  vessel  of  war.  At  the  time 
when  Mesolonghion  withstood  its  two  famous  sieges 
military  genius  had  not  contributed  seriously  to  the 
strengthening  of  the  place.  What  used  to  be  haughtily 
said  of  the  olden  Spartans  can  be  adapted  and  repeated 
in  regard  to  the  Mesolonghians.  Their  unflinching 
bravery,  strong  arms,  and  well-managed  weapons  were 
the  fortifications  of  their  city. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  insurrection  against  the 

337 


338  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Porte,  Mesolonghion  gave  shelter  and  support  to 
about  five  thousand  inhabitants.  By  converting  a  good 
portion  of  the  shallow  lagoons  into  vivaria,  the  town 
had  become  one  of  the  best  fish-marts  of  Greece.  And 
by  flooding  with  sea  water  the  neighboring  smooth 
fields  that  were  a  few  inches  lower  than  the  sea-level 
they  used  to  collect  the  salt  that  remained  after  the 
evaporation  of  the  waters.  From  fish  and  salt  as  well 
as  from  their  pasture  lands  and  arable  fields  they  lived 
in  comparative  affluence.  A  feeling  of  independence 
was  developed  among  them.  Panaghiotes  Palamas 
had  founded  a  school  there  and  the  young  fishermen 
and  shepherds  began  to  learn  something  of  the  liter- 
ature of  their  forefathers.  This  school,  some  years  be- 
fore the  insurrection,  had  been  improved  and  honored 
by  the  higher  title  of  "academy."  In  the  year  1770, 
when  the  Tsarina's  emissaries  endeavored  to  create 
a  diversion  against  Turkey  by  occasioning  a  revolt 
in  Greece,  Mesolonghian  patriots  were  among  those 
who  fell  into  the  Russian  trap.  And  when  a  false 
report  announced  that  Orloff  had  captured  the  Turkish 
fort  of  Modon  in  the  Peloponnesos  they  raised  the 
standard  of  revolt  and  drove  away  all  the  Turks  that 
were  dwelling  within  their  town.  But  Russian  help 
never  came  to  them.  A  fleet  of  Moslem  corsairs 
sailed  down  from  Dulcigno,  captured  and  plundered 
Mesolonghion,  and  re-established  Turkish  domination. 
The  town  quickly  recovered,  however,  and  was  im- 
portant in  the  days  of  Ali  Pasha,  who  built  a  strong 
fort  on  the  island  of  Basiladi  out  in  the  lagoons,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  control  the  town. 

In  the  year  1821,  this  prosperous  town  was  in- 


MESOLONGHION  339 

habited  chiefly  by  Christians.  A  number  of  Greek 
ships  from  the  island  of  Spetzia  sailed  into  these 
waters  to  assist  the  insurgents  of  Patras,  a  town  which 
lies  opposite  Mesolonghion  on  the  south  side  of  the 
gulf.  When  the  few  Moslem  families  of  Mesolonghion 
saw  these  ships  they  were  so  much  taken  by  fright 
that  immediately  they  all  abandoned  their  homes  and 
fled  to  the  fortified  town  of  Brachori,  where  the  num- 
ber of  their  coreligionists  was  greater.  Immediately 
after  the  flight  of  the  Moslems  the  Christians  assembled 
and  formally  proclaimed  that  they  approved  of  the 
revolution.  This  took  place  in  the  early  part  of  June. 
The  Mesolonghians  immediately  prepared  for  active 
participation.  They  summoned  Makres,  the  klephtic 
chieftain,  to  come  down  from  the  Zygos  mountains 
and  assist  them  with  his  palikars.  About  two  months 
later  Prince  Mavrokordatos  left  the  Greek  army  which 
was  besieging  Tripolis,  and  came  here  to  take  charge 
of  the  war  in  western  Greece.  A  senate  was  estab- 
lished in  Mesolonghion  which  was  to  direct  the  affairs 
of  all  this  part  of  the  country. 

Mesolonghion  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
Moslem  leaders.  Ali  Pasha  had  been  defeated  by  his 
own  countrymen,  and  in  February  of  1822  was  assas- 
sinated. The  Greeks  and  phil-Hellenes  that  had  been 
trying  to  withstand  the  Moslems  in  the  country  between 
Mesolonghion  and  loanina  had  been  shot  down  at  Peta 
in  July.  High  and  defiant  Souli  had  surrendered  in 
September,  and  its  inhabitants  had  bidden  adieu  to 
their  native  land.  Mesolonghion  was  the  next  place  to 
be  humbled  and  annihilated.  The  Moslem  general, 
Omer  Vrioni,  at  the  head  of  11,000  soldiers  and  ac- 


340  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

companied  by  Reshid  Pasha,  marched  down  through 
Akarnania  and  encamped  outside  of  Mesolonghion. 
On  November  6  the  siege  commenced.  The  town 
was  protected  partly  by  the  lagoons  which  did  not 
allow  the  approach  of  large  vessels.  On  the  land 
side,  however,  it  was  but  indifferently  fortified.  The 
town  lies  on  a  low  sandy  strand  jutting  out  into  the 
shallow  water.  Running  across  the  neck  of  this  out- 
jutting  promontory  was  a  low  mud  wall  which  fenced 
the  town  off  from  the  fields  on  the  land  side.  The 
mud  wall  was  flanked  on  the  outer  side  by  a  shallow 
moat  about  16  feet  wide.  The  assailants  thought  that 
the  storming  of  the  place  would  be  an  easy  task.  The 
chief  leaders  of  the  besieged  Mesolonghians  were 
Prince  Mavrokordatos  and  Marko  Botsares.  Mavro- 
kordatos'  friends  had  urged  him  to  abandon  the  Meso- 
longhians. His  English  acquaintances  had  suggested 
that  he  take  refuge  in  Zakynthos.  But  Mavrokordatos 
said  that  he  would  stay  in  Mesolonghion,  either  to 
drive  the  assailants  back  or  else  to  die  there  as  he 
should.  His  heroism  had  its  effect  on  a  population 
itself  heroic.  The  garrison  consisted  of  about  600 
soldiers,  among  whom  were  a  few  phil-Hellenes. 

Before  making  serious  attempts  against  the  town, 
Omer  offered  favorable  terms  if  they  would  capitulate. 
In  order  to  gain  time  the  Mesolonghians  postponed 
their  definite  answer.  But  on  November  20  seven 
ships  came  to  their  assistance,  bringing  what  they 
most  needed,  ammunition.  Also  a  detachment  of 
several  hundred  Peloponnesians  landed  to  aid  them. 
The  Mesolonghians  broke  off  all  peace  negotiations 
and  informed  Omer  that  if  he  desired  to  have  Meso- 


MESOLONGHION  341 

longhion  "he  would  have  to  come  and  take  it."  Omer 
immediately  began  preparations  to  do  so. 

Finally  Omer  planned  a  formidable  and  general 
attack  for  Christmas  morning.  This  he  did  because  he 
supposed  that  the  Mesolonghians  would  all  be  in  their 
churches,  and  the  wall  would  be  deserted.  But  a 
huntsman  from  a  neighboring  district,  who  used  to 
supply  Omer  with  game  and  fish,  contrived  to  forewarn 
the  besieged.  In  vengeance  for  this  act  the  huntsman's 
wife  and  children  were  slaughtered.  The  Greek  priests 
had  imparted  to  all  the  soldiers  a  dispensation  from 
being  present  at  mass  on  that  Christmas  morning. 
Shortly  before  daybreak,  when  all  were  supposed  to 
be  in  the  churches,  the  storming  assailants  stealthily 
approached.  One  division  intended  to  scale  the  east 
wall  and  the  other  by  wading  through  the  lagoon 
expected  to  enter  the  town  from  the  south.  The  hidden 
Mesolonghians  made  no  sign  of  life  until  the  assailants 
were  within  pistol  shot.  Then  they  opened  a  terrible 
volley.  The  surprisers  were  surprised.  For  three 
hours  the  skirmish  lasted.  The  loss  of  the  Turks  was 
not  made  known,  but  the  number  is  said  to  have  been 
several  hundred.  Only  four  Greeks  were  killed.  Omer 
despaired  of  being  able  to  take  the  brave  lagoon  town. 
And  fearing  lest  Odyssevs  or  some  other  klephtic 
leader  might  attack  him  from  without,  he  decided  to 
retreat  hurriedly.  He  abandoned  some  of  his  cannon 
and  baggage  in  his  terrified  haste.  Mesolonghion  was 
free  to  breathe  for  awhile. 

The  second  and  more  glorious  siege  began  in  1825. 
But  in  the  interval  Mesolonghion  continued  to  be  an 
important  center  for  the  patriots.  In  January  of  1824 


342  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  brave  citizens  received  into  their  midst  the  most 
enthusiastic  of  their  friends,  Lord  Byron.  He  im- 
mediately began  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  town. 
He  tried  to  persuade  them  to  adopt  European  methods 
of  regularity  and  obedience  in  the  army.  He  expended 
money  in  paying  discontented  soldiers.  He  encouraged 
everybody.  But  these  straining  exertions  and  the  un- 
healthfulness  of  the  locality  were  too  severe  for  his 
already  shattered  health.  On  Easter  Sunday  in  April 
of  the  same  year  he  died  among  his  Hellenic  friends, 
in  the  house  of  Trikoupes,  the  historian. 

In  1825,  the  sultan  decided  that  Mesolonghion 
should  no  longer  be  allowed  to  remain  unmolested.  He 
commanded  Reshid  Pasha  to  march  against  it,  inti- 
mating that  Reshid  would  loose  his  head  if  he  failed 
to  take  Mesolonghion.  In  April  of  1825  Reshid 
arrived  in  the  plain  at  the  foot  of  Zygos  mountain 
east  of  Mesolonghion.  The  size  of  his  army  is  not 
known.  His  commissariat  distributed  25,000  rations, 
but  it  is  probable  that  his  fighting  men  did  not  much 
exceed  10,000.  The  Mesolonghians  had  4,000  defend- 
ers. The  earthen  rampart  across  the  promontory  still 
existed,  and  was  in  better  condition  than  during  the 
first  siege.  It  was  partly  faced  with  masonry.  It  was 
protected  by  a  number  of  various  kinds  of  batteries 
which  bore  the  names  of  celebrated  defenders  or  ad- 
vocates of  human  liberty.  The  besieged  had  forty- 
eight  guns  and  four  mortars.  The  muddy  ditch  still 
existed. 

Reshid  demanded  that  the  Mesolonghians  surrender 
to  him  the  keys  of  the  city  and  retire  with  honor. 
They  answered  that  they  had  hung  the  keys  of  the 


MESOLONGHION  343 

town  on  their  cannon,  and  that  if  he  wished  he  might 
come  and  take  them  off.  On  May  10  the  first  bomb 
was  shot  into  the  town.  From  that  time  the  attack 
was  almost  incessant.  On  June  10  a  small  flotilla  of 
Greek  ships  arrived  and  drove  away  the  Moslem 
vessels  that  were  patroling  the  sea  and  preventing  all 
communication  from  that  side.  A  month  later  a  large 
fleet  was  seen  gradually  to  approach.  The  Meso- 
longhians thought  that  it  was  assistance  coming  to 
them.  But  soon  the  red  flags  of  the  Moslems  were 
descried  on  the  masts,  and  the  joy  passed  to  the  ranks 
of  the  assailants.  Again  Reshid  summoned  the  city 
to  surrender.  But  the  response  which  he  received 
showed  that  disappointment  did  not  lessen  the  bravery 
of  the  Mesolonghians. 

Then  Reshid  heard  that  a  Greek  fleet  was  about  to 
come  to  Mesolonghion.  With  the  determination  of 
taking  the  town  at  all  costs  before  this  assistance  could 
arrive,  he  stormed  the  town  on  August  2.  But  he  had 
to  go  back  to  his  tents  with  his  army  lessened  by  500 
men.  As  soon  as  the  Greek  fleet  of  40  ships  arrived 
it  began  to  worry  the  Turks  by  sending  blazing  fire- 
ships  to  drift  toward  the  Moslem  vessels.  These  tac- 
tics so  scared  the  Moslem  commander  that  he  suddenly 
decided  that  he  was  needed  at  Alexandreia  in  Egypt, 
and  sailed  away,  claiming  a  victory,  however,  because, 
as  he  said,  he  had  not  been  defeated.  This  Greek  fleet 
brought  provisions  and  ammunition.  And  how  much 
the  Mesolonghians  needed  ammunition  is  evident  from 
the  story  that  they  had  but  two  kegs  of  powder. 
Reshid  then  devised  a  new  plan  for  mastering  the 
determined  Mesolonghians.  He  set  his  men  to  work 


344  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  constructed  a  long  mound  that  was  higher  than  the 
defensive  walls  of  the  town  and  extended  from  the 
Moslem  camp  to  the  Franklin  battery  in  the  east  wall 
of  Mesolonghion.  The  mound,  being  built  in  such 
a  way  as  continually  to  protect  those  who  were  build- 
ing it,  finally  was  completed  across  the  moat  and  up 
to  the  edge  of  the  Franklin  battery.  But  in  the  mean- 
time the  Mesolonghians  had  built  a  new  wall  of  pro- 
tection and  were  ready  to  abandon  the  Franklin  bastion. 
The  Moslems  rushed  along  their  mound  and  took 
the  Franklin  by  storm.  Then  the  Mesolonghians  after 
a  few  days  made  a  sortie  and  not  only  cut  down  all 
the  Moslems  that  were  trying  to  defend  the  Franklin 
and  the  mound,  but  spread  such  terror  among  the 
assailants  that  Reshid  shortly  after  despaired  of  being 
able  to  take  the  city  by  storm.  Fearing  for  the  safety 
of  his  army  he  abandoned  all  active  operations  and 
retired  to  a  considerable  distance  and  encamped  near 
the  foot  of  Mount  Zygos. 

This  was  the  critical  moment  in  the  progress  of  the 
siege.  Reshid  had  bitterly  learned  that  his  men  could 
not  stand  against  the  bayonets  and  daggers  of  the 
Mesolonghians  in  an  assault.  His  men  were  woefully 
suffering  from  hunger  and  sickness.  Many  were  the 
desertions.  The  Mesolonghians  and  the  '  rains  had 
completely  destroyed  all  his  besieging  works.  But 
the  Greeks  did  not  take  full  advantage  of  these  cir- 
cumstances. The  Greek  fleet  brought  no  new  provi- 
sions. The  Mesolonghians  themselves  instead  of 
hastily  preparing  for  future  contingencies  spent  con- 
siderable time  in  rejoicing  over  their  good  fortune. 
Doom  was  against  them.  The  sultan  of  Turkey, 


MESOLONGHION  345 

determined  to  have  Mesolonghion  at  all  costs,  even  at 
the  sacrifice  of  his  pride  in  his  own  soldiers.  He 
decided  to  call  Ibrahim's  Egyptians  to  the  aid  of  Resh- 
id's  Albanian  and  Turkish  soldiers.  Ibrahim  accord- 
ingly left  the  Peloponnesos  which  he  had  almost 
completely  overrun  and  on  January  7,  leading  20,000 
Arabs,  he  came  and  pitched  his  tents  near  those  of 
Reshid.  Seeing  the  apparently  insignificant  fortifica- 
tions of  Mesolonghion,  he  thought  that  he  could 
take  it  by  a  simple  assault,  and  superciliously  asked 
Reshid  how  it  was  possible  for  him  to  have  wasted  so 
much  time  before  "that  old  fence."  Hatred  deep  and 
lasting  grew  up  between  Reshid  and  Ibrahim.  Ibrahim 
proposed  either  to  be  permitted  to  take  "the  old  fence" 
himself  or  else  that  Reshid  assume  the  obligation  of 
taking  it  unaided.  Reshid  accepted  the  first  alterna- 
tive, and  withdrew  into  his  camps  with  all  his  forces. 
It  used  to  be  said  that  Ibrahim,  before  making  any 
attack,  sent  messengers  advising  the  Mesolonghians  to 
send  deputies  to  him  who  could  speak  Turkish  or  Al- 
banian or  French  to  treat  with  him  concerning  sur- 
render. They  replied,  "We  are  not  educated  men  and 
do  not  know  so  many  languages.  But  we  know  our 
swords  and  guns." 

Then  the  siege  began  afresh.  In  January  the  Greek 
admiral  Miaoules  with  twenty-seven  ships  arrived.  He 
drove  away  the  sixty  vessels  of  the  Turkish  fleet, 
delivered  supplies  of  food  and  ammunition  to  the  town 
sufficient  for  two  months,  and  then  returned  to  Hydra. 
Toward  the  end  of  January  Ibrahim  had  fully  pre- 
pared for  operations  and  began  the  bombardment.  In 
three  days  his  forty  cannon  had  leveled  most  of  the 


346  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

houses.  After  leveling  the  town,  Ibrahim  made  a 
fearful  assault  against  the  bastion  Botsares,  and  in  the 
night  of  February  27  succeeded  in  capturing  it.  But 
at  daybreak,  when  the  Mesolonghians  could  better 
distinguish  their  enemies,  by  an  awful  attack  with  their 
sabers  they  drove  out  the  Moslems  and  reconquered 
the  bastion.  Then  Reshid  sent  a  messenger  to  Ibrahim 
to  ask  him  "what  he  now  thought  about  that  'old 
fence.'  " 

After  this  repulse  Ibrahim  bent  himself  from  his 
haughty  bearing  and  asked  Reshid  to  assist  in  the 
siege.  The  two  generals  then  united  their  forces.  But 
in  spite  of  all  their  strength  Ibrahim  believed  that  he 
could  not  capture  the  town  except  by  famine.  And 
in  fact  famine  it  was  that  finally  was  to  be  the  con- 
queror. In  April  their  food  was  almost  all  consumed. 
They  tried  to  keep  up  sufficient  strength  by  eating 
leather  and  worms  and  rats  and  seaweed.  But  disease 
began  to  decimate  them.  Emaciated  to  the  last  ex- 
tremity, pale  as  ghosts,  with  sunken  eyes,  they  con- 
tinued to  keep  guard  in  their  bastions  and  along  their 
walls  and  sea  coast.  Ibrahim  still  afraid  of  them  sent 
messengers  bearing  extremely  favorable  terms  of  sur- 
render. 

Finally  the  Mesolonghians  were  able  to  defend  their 
ruined  hovels  no  longer.  But  they  did  not  contemplate 
even  for  a  moment  the  idea  of  surrendering.  They 
decided  to  cut  their  way  through  the  assailing  hosts 
and  escape  to  the  mountains.  The  plan  was  one  of 
those  that  might  possibly  eventuate  successfully  on  ac- 
count of  its  hopelessness.  They  succeeded  in  sending 
out  messengers  to  the  klephtic  leaders  in  the  mountains 


MESOLONGHION  347 

of  Zygos  announcing  their  determination  and  asking 
assistance  in  the  undertaking.  These  klephts  were  to 
come  down  and  divert  the  attention  of  the  Moslems 
by  skirmishing  with  them  in  the  rear.  The  exodus  was 
fixed  for  the  night  of  April  22.  They  burned  all  their 
small  property  and  were  ready.  Three  generals, 
Botsares,  Makres,  and  Tsabellas,  were  to  lead  the  three 
divisions.  In  front  was  to  proceed  a  portion  of  those 
who  were  in  condition  to  fight.  After  these  were  to 
come  the  sick  and  aged  and  children  and  women.  In 
the  rear  were  to  follow  the  rest  of  the  soldiers.  Some 
of  the  sick  and  aged  and  others  who  refused  to  depart 
from  the  town  were  left  behind.  A  Bulgarian  traitor 
had  forewarned  Ibrahim  of  the  premeditated  attempt  to 
escape.  The  three  columns  stealthily  moved  out  of  the 
town  and  hid  themselves  in  the  space  between  the  walls 
and  the  Moslem  camps.  There  they  lay  on  the  ground 
waiting  to  hear  the  musketry  of  their  countrymen  from 
the  mountains  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy.  But  the  hours 
went  on  and  no  such  sign  was  given.  Then  suddenly 
from  behind  Zygos  the  moon  arose.  They  could  no 
longer  stay  lying  where  they  were.  They  leaped  up 
and  dashed  on  to  break  through  the  enemies'  lines. 
The  Moslems,  who  were  waiting  for  them,  met  them 
with  tremendous  volleys.  Then  a  terrific  hand  to  hand 
encounter  ensued.  In  the  confusion  was  heard  the  cry, 
"Turn  back,  turn  back."  Whence  it  came  no  one  after- 
ward knew.  But  at  the  moment  it  wrought  confusion. 
Many,  thinking  that  it  was  an  order  of  their  leaders, 
rushed  back  to  the  town  followed  by  detachments  of 
Moslems.  The  others  kept  on,  cutting  a  passage  with 
their  swords.  The  palikars  who  were  in  the  lead  and 


348  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

those  who  brought  up  the  rear  could  not  be  withstood. 
Only  on  the  helpless  in  the  middle  of  the  columns  did 
the  assailants  wreak  havoc.  Finally  it  seemed  that 
many  were  to  be  saved.  They  had  passed  through  the 
enemies'  lines  and  had  reached  the  field  beyond.  But 
here  a  detachment  of  five  hundred  horsemen  drove 
down  upon  them.  Even  these  horsemen  could  not  hold 
against  the  sabers  of  the  palikars,  but  they  kept  riding 
down  and  killing  the  women  and  children  and  old  men. 
At  last  the  Mesolonghians  reached  the  mountains,  but 
here  again  they  fell  in  with  a  detachment  of  Albanians 
who  again  wrought  much  slaughter.  Eighteen  hundred 
of  them  finally  arrived  at  the  town  of  Platanos,  where 
they  were  in  safety.  After  staying  here  a  few  days 
they  proceeded  on  and  came  to  the  large  town  of 
Amphissa.  From  Platanos  to  Amphissa  many  died 
on  the  way  through  the  effects  of  previous  hunger 
and  exhaustion.  After  reaching  Amphissa  they  were 
counted  and  it  was  found  that  those  who  survived  the 
exodus  were  thirteen  hundred. 

When  the  cry  of  "turn  back"  was  heard,  those  who 
retreated  into  the  town  were  more  than  six  thousand. 
As  most  of  them  were  non-combatants,  they  could  do 
nothing  against  the  assailants  that  pursued  them.  The 
Moslems  easily  got  possession  of  the  town.  The  scenes 
that  were  then  enacted  were  in  part  most  fiercely  savage 
and  in  part  most  gloriously  heroic.  The  assailants  for 
a  time  slew  all  whom  they  could  approach.  Women 
and  children  formed  no  exception.  They  then  began 
to  take  captives.  Youths  with  the  brave  blood  of 
Mesolonghion  in  their  veins  were  afterward  sold  in  the 
Moslem  slave  markets.  Of  the  four  thousand  that 


MESOLONGHION  349 

thus  were  reduced  to  bondage,  some  were  afterward 
ransomed  and  came  back  to  the  holy  ruins  of  their 
town.  Three  thousand  heads  were  gathered  up  by  the 
Turks  and  Arabs  as  trophies  of  their  slaughterous 
victory.  Among  the  fallen  were  several  prominent 
phil-Hellenes,  notably  Dr.  Meyer,  the  Swiss  physician, 
who  lived  in  Mesolonghion  and  there  published  for 
several  years  the  Chronicle,  the  first  journal  ever  regu- 
larly printed  in  Greece.  To  add  to  the  horrors,  Turks 
fought  against  Egyptians  here  and  there  in  their 
quarrels  over  the  booty  and  the  slaves. 

In  the  midst  of  the  fire  and  murder  and  plunderings 
a  number  of  Mesolonghians  had  gathered  into  one  of 
the  larger  magazines.  They  say  that  more  than  a 
thousand  children  and  women  and  old  men  were  in  this 
spacious  storeroom.  The  soldiers  of  the  enemy  pressed 
in  to  capture  them.  Then  an  old  hero  named  Christos 
Kapsales  held  a  blazing  fagot  in  his  hand.  When  the 
Moslems  were  well  within  the  walls,  old  Kapsales  in 
mighty  voice  chanted  forth  the  anthem,  beginning  "Be- 
think Thee  of  Us,  O  Lord,"  and  plunged  his  blazing 
torch  into  the  kegs  of  powder.  Kapsales'  offering  on 
this  bloody  altar  of  freedom  included  in  its  hecatombs 
of  victims  all  the  Christians  and  Moslems  that  were 
within  these  walls. 

Next  morning's  sun  from  behind  Zygos  looked 
down  upon  the  blackened  and  corpse-strewn  ruins  of 
Mesolonghion.  Two  years  passed  before  signs  of  free 
life  again  could  show  themselves  on  the  shores  of 
the  lagoons.  But  on  May  14,  1828,  the  flag  that 
the  Mesolonghians  loved  was  again  planted  on  the 


350  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

immortal  site.  Since  then  Mesolonghion  is  again 
a  Greek  town.  Many  of  its  heroes  lie  buried  in 
an  honored  spot  which  is  proudly  known  as  the 
"Heroon." 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS 

Dove  la  storia  e  muta  parlano  le  tombe. 

When  the  traveler  issuing  from  the  Tretos  Pass, 
as  he  goes  southward  from  the  land  of  Korinth, 
catches  a  first  wide  glimpse  of  the  outspread  Argolid 
plain,  his  thoughts  forsake  all  modern  allurements  and 
go  asearching  into  the  misty  and  undated  ages  of 
prehistoric  Hellenic  foretime.  The  lofty  rock  of 
Larisa  which  is  the  citadel  of  mythic  Argos,  the  low 
long  ledge  whereon  Kyklop  workmen  builded  for 
Proetos  the  palace  of  Tiryns,  and  the  storied  heights 
which  used  to  protect  Agamemnon's  wide-wayed 
golden  city  of  Mykense  distract  the  dream-held 
beholder  from  all  knowledge  that  is  not  rooted  in  pre- 
historic times. 

Not  only  has  this  land  been  associated  with  many 
of  the  oldest  traditions  and  myths  of  Greece,  but 
here  also  have  modern  scholars  succeeded  in  first  rais- 
ing the  misty  veil  of  Lethe  that  had  shut  off  from  us 
and  our  forefathers  all  the  Hellenic  ages  prior  to  the 
seventh  or  eighth  century  before  Christ,  and  by  dis- 
coveries that  had  their  beginning  here,  have  peered 
through  that  mist  and  now  discern  long  and  interest- 
ing ages  of  human  activity  and  strife  such  as  here  and 
elsewhere  in  Greekland  took  place  as  far  back  even  as 
three  thousand  years  before  the  beginning  of  our  era. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  excavator  Schliemann  dug  up 
for  us  the  first  sound  testimonials  that  give  witness  to 
the  qualities  of  that  bygone  life.  Since  then  the 


352  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

science  has  made  its  progress  in  giant  strides,  and 
now  the  results  are  many  and  clear. 

Schliemann's  discoveries  reached  their  highest  im- 
portance and  most  positive  form  in  the  ruins  at  Myke- 
nse. A  definite  kind  of  civilization  was  unearthed  and 
ascertained.  Since  then,  comparatively  earlier  and 
later  forms  of  civilization  prior  to  historic  times  have 
likewise  been  discovered  and  understood.  The  civiliza- 
tion found  to  have  existed  at  Mykense  in  the  palmiest 
days  of  that  city  has  been  clearly  shown  to  have  con- 
temporaneously existed  not  only  at  Mykense  but  as 
well  at  many  other  places  in  Greekland.  Since  this 
civilization  has  come  down  to  us  unnamed,  those  who 
discovered  it  had  to  give  it  an  appellation,  so  that  it 
might  be  tangibly  handled  and  discussed.  Out  of  honor 
to  the  place  where  it  was  first  discovered,  and  also 
on  account  of  the  fact  that  it  reached  perhaps  its  great- 
est perfection  at  this  revered  town  of  Mykense,  scholars 
have  agreed  to  recognize  by  the  name  of  Mykenseic, 
this  peculiar  civilization  which  flourished  here  in  Greek- 
land  in  the  days  of  long  ago.  After  this  period  of 
civilization  received  its  name  of  "Mykenseic,"  it  was 
then  easy  to  give  the  appellation  of  "pre-Mykenseic"  to 
such  civilization  as  immediately  preceded  this,  and  the 
name  of  "post-Mykenseic"  to  all  civilization  that  inter- 
vened between  the  decay  of  Mykenseic  civilization  and 
the  dawn  of  the  later  ages  that  are  known  to  us  through 
Greek  literary  history.  Other  more  accurate  names 
are  also  in  use.  But  for  the  present  we  may  say  that 
the  history  of  primeval  Greece  may  be  divided  into 
three  great  periods:  pre-Mykenseic,  Mykenseic,  and 
post-Mykenseic.  These  three  periods  are  so  early  as  to 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     353 

belong  all  to  the  ages  of  undatable  history.  But  never- 
theless by  approximation  it  is  possible  to  say  that  the 
second  or  Mykenseic  period  flourished  for  about  five 
or  six  hundred  years,  and  that  it  closed  about  one 
thousand  years  before  Christ;  and  that  the  post- 
Mykenseic  period  began  immediately  with  the  decline 
of  the  Mykenaeic  civilization  and  continued  down  to 
historic  times,  to  about  seven  or  six  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  our  era.  These  three  stages  of 
civilization  are  connected  with  the  early  history  of  the 
Argolid. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  there  lived  in  Greek- 
land  men  of  the  so-called  neolithic  period,  when  sharp 
instruments  and  cutting  tools  were  made  not  of  metal 
but  of  stone.  That  this  land  was  previously  inhabited 
by  still  more  primitive  dwellers,  such  as  we  call  paleo- 
lithic, is  as  yet  unproven.  The  habitations  of  the 
neolithic  men  of  Greekland  are  found  to  have  been,  in 
every  place  where  they  have  been  discovered,  built  on 
the  native  rock  of  citadels.  No  lower  debris  is  dis- 
cernible. And  therefore  we  may  say  that  no  signs 
of  paleolithic  man  are  here  recognizable.  The  neo- 
lithic period  does  not  deeply  concern  us  at  present,  for 
perhaps  the  earliest  of  our  mythologic  or  literary  ac- 
quaintances in  the  Argolid  had  already  begun  to  make 
use  of  copper,  although  they  had  not  by  any  means 
entirely  discarded  the  use  of  stone.  Purer  traces  of  the 
neolithic  age  are  found  outside  of  the  Argolid,  for 
example  on  the  Akropolis  of  Athens  and  on  the  hill  of 
Hissarlik.  In  dividing  the  progress  of  prehistoric 
civilization  into  the  ages  of  stone,  of  copper,  of  bronze, 
and  of  iron,  the  anthropologists  of  course  do  not  teach 


354  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

that  the  transition  from  each  of  these  periods  to 
the  succeeding  one  was  sudden  and  abrupt.  On  the 
contrary,  stone  continued  to  be  long  used  by  the 
men  of  copper  and  bronze  times,  and  bronze  was 
long  used  for  the  manufacture  of  cutting  implements 
by  generations  of  men  who  had  learned  the  superiority 
of  iron. 

The  pre-Mykenaeic  period  was  an  age  of  copper  and 
of  bronze.  It  is  probable  that  the  pre-Mykenaeic  men 
of  Greekland  were  the  descendants  of  the  neolithic  men, 
and  were  not  new  and  fresh  immigrants.  This  is  made 
credible  by  the  gradualness  of  the  abandonment  of  the 
peculiar  implements  and  pottery  that  were  in  use 
among  the  neolithic  men.  Neolithic  wares  and  imple- 
ments are  found  at  many  places  in  the  Argolid,  at 
Tiryns  for  instance  and  at  the  Heraeon.  But  these 
remains  are  such  as  probably  coexisted  along  with  the 
use  of  copper.  The  Argolid,  however,  was,  it  seems, 
not  the  center  of  pre-Mykenaeic  life  here  in  Greekland. 
This  old  civilization  was  developed  and  rose  to  impor- 
tance rather  in  the  islands  of  the  ^gean  Sea.  It  was 
not  even  confined  to  what  might  ordinarily  be  called 
Greekland.  For  it  was  spread  over  all  the  shores  round 
the  eastern  Mediterranean,  going  far  into  Asia  Minor 
and  perhaps  extending  down  even  into  Palestine; 
while  toward  the  west  it  entered  into  Italy  and  Sicily 
and  perhaps  other  countries.  It  was  a  chalkolithic 
age,  that  is,  stone  was  still  largely  employed,  but  copper 
was  already  well  known  and  perhaps  even  the  manu- 
facture of  bronze.  The  copper  age  of  central  Europe 
seems  to  have  been  almost  contemporary  with  this 
^Egean  civilization.  And  it  is  not  yet  possible  to  decide 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     355 

whether  the  people  of  the  ^Egean  learned  from  Europe 
the  use  of  copper,  or  on  the  contrary  perhaps  taught 
the  use  of  this  metal  to  the  inhabitants  of  central 
Europe,  after  having  learned  it  from  Mesopotamia  or 
Egypt. 

What  was  the  name  of  this  energetic  people  that 
dwelt  here  in  those  days?  We  do  not  know.  But 
from  various  ancient  scraps  of  literature  we  are  taught 
that  in  prehistoric  times  a  widespread  and  active  people 
called  the  Pelasgians  inhabited  all  these  regions.  All 
the  ante-Hellenic  tribes  of  Asia  Minor,  of  the  ^Egean 
Islands,  and  of  Greece  proper,  as  well  as  of  portions 
of  more  western  countries  may  possibly  be  more  or 
less  related  with  this  half-mythic  Pelasgic  stock.  By 
assigning  this  chalkolithic  civilization  to  the  Pelasgic 
race,  we  at  least  get  a  name,  otherwise  historically 
known,  around  which  we  may  group  our  other  more 
positive  knowledge  concerning  this  remote  period  of 
time.  At  least  the  Pelasgians  preceded  the  Achseans 
and  the  Dorians  in  Greece.  In  very  ancient  times  all 
the  mainland  of  Greece  may  have  been  a  "Pelasgia." 
One  of  the  most  ancient  towns  was  perhaps  Argos  in 
this  plain,  whence  the  Pelasgians  ruled  over  the  sur- 
rounding pasture  lands  and  corn-fields.  The  citadel 
of  this  town  has  never  lost  the  name  which  the  Pelas- 
gians gave  to  it;  for  it  is  even  yet  known  as  the 
"Larisa."  The  pre-Mykenseic  period,  after  lasting 
perhaps  a  thousand  years,  merged  into  the  Mykenseic 
age  about  fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  and  gradually  its  distinctive  characteristics  dis- 
appeared. 

Like  the  preceeding  style  of  civilization,  so  also  did 


356  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  Mykenaeic  type  extend  over  a  wide  area.  Not 
having  any  name  to  designate  the  whole  group  of  the 
countries  that  were  inhabited  by  people  of  this  civili- 
zation, it  is  permitted  for  convenience's  sake  to  give  it 
a  comprehensive  name  and  to  call  it  "Mykenland." 
The  inhabitants  of  this  area  can  then  be  conveniently 
known  as  "Mykenlanders." 

At  the  beginning  of  this  period,  the  islands  of  the 
^gean  were  still  the  chief  places  of  Greekland  where 
civilization  was  highest.  Here  we  may  mention  the 
fabulous  sea-king  Minos,  who  ruled  the  Kretans  from 
his  wonderful  palace  at  Knosos.  But  gradually  it 
seems  that  the  cities  of  the  mainland  of  Greece,  and 
especially  those  of  the  Argolid,  and  more  especially 
Mykenae,  rose  into  pre-eminence.  Possibly  some  new 
race  came  in,  adopted  the  already-existing  culture  or 
introduced  a  more  advanced  type  of  it,  established  it- 
self in  the  Argolid,  intermingled  with  the  more  primi- 
tive Pelasgians,  and  brought  Mykense  to  the  height  of 
its  glory.  These  new-comers  would  be  the  Achaeans, 
so  well  familiar  to  us  through  the  Iliadic  Epic.  But 
it  is  not  easy  to  discern  how  high  the  Mykenlanders  had 
already  developed  their  civilization  before  the  coming 
of  the  Achaeans.  It  is,  therefore,  not  clear  whether  this 
newer  civilization  was  chiefly  Pelasgian  or  Achaean. 
In  the  later  days  of  the  greatness  of  Mykenae,  it 
is  certain  that  Achaean  lords  ruled  there.  But  we  can- 
not fix  the  date  of  their  coming.  Whosoever  it  be  that 
started  the  great  period  of  Mykenseic  civilization,  this 
much  at  least  is  certain,  that  the  Mykenlanders  of  the 
later  ages  were  a  mixed  race,  in  part  Pelasgian  perhaps 
and  in  part  Achaean.  And  it  is  quite  certain  that  it 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     357 

was  from  a  mixed  race  of  this  kind  that  the  Hellenic 
population  of  historic  Greece  received  its  origin. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  Achseans  the  town  and 
citadel  of  Tiryns  had  already  seen  its  most  glorious 
days.  Possibly  Tiryns  was  founded  in  the  remote  ages 
when  a  good  part  of  the  low  plain  of  Argolis  was  yet 
a  shallow  bay  of  the  sea,  and  the  rock  upon  which  the 
prehistoric  town  was  built  was  an  island  therein.  Neo- 
lithic remains  have  been  found  at  Tiryns.  But  in  the 
Bronze  Age  alluvial  soil  had  filled  the  sea  round  about 
the  rock  of  the  citadel.  The  surrounding  country  al- 
ways remained  marshy,  however,  and  a  portion  of  it 
is  so  until  the  present  day.  In  these  marshes,  the 
Tirynthians,  like  their  neighbors,  the  Argives,  who 
were  equally  or  yet  more  antique,  had  good  pasture 
for  their  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of  cattle  and  droves 
of  horses.  The  Mykenlanders  of  Tiryns  were  a  power- 
ful folk.  This  is  proven  by  the  massive  walls  of  their 
king's  citadel,  and  by  the  spaciousness  and  richness  of 
the  royal  palace.  The  citadel  walls  were  built  of  such 
huge  stones,  and  so  indestructibly  built  as  to  have  ex- 
cited the  wonderment  not  only  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
but  to  astonish  all  who  see  their  remains  today.  Homer 
mentions  these  walls,  and  Pavsanias  was  amazed  at 
them.  They  are  built  of  great  stones  hewn  but  slightly, 
which  are  balanced  and  joined  together  by  smaller 
stones  and  by  mortar  of  clay.  The  royal  palace  on  the 
top  of  this  hill  is  so  well  preserved  in  its  foundation- 
lines  that  from  its  remains  a  correct  notion  of  the  form 
and  nature  of  a  Mykenlandic  palace  can  be  easily 
formed.  It  is  the  best  preserved  of  all  palace-ruins  of 
that  remote  period,  except  the  Minoan  labyrinth  at 


358  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Knosos  in  Krete.  Besides  the  Knosian  palace  the  other 
two  that  are  sufficiently  well  preserved  to  be  compared 
with  this  of  Tiryns  are  at  Mykense  and  at  Goulas  in 
Boeotia. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  age  of  the  Mykenlanders  is 
known  to  us  as  a  dateless  age  of  nameless  men.  This 
is  scarcely  true.  Quite  a  number  of  the  heroes  of  those 
days  have  had  their  names  recorded  for  us  in  the  un- 
dying myths  of  early  Greece.  But  as  yet  the  work  of 
excavations  has  brought  to  our  acquaintance  the  name 
of  not  even  one  of  the  men  who  then  flourished.  This 
is  so  much  the  more  impressed  on  us  because  the 
Mykenlanders  possessed  a  system  of  writing,  and  a 
good  number  of  their  records  have  been  found,  es- 
pecially in  Krete.  But  the  clay  tablets  of  Knosos  keep 
their  secrets  closed  to  us.  We  are  not  able  to  read  their 
alphabet,  and  even  do  not  know  what  language  these 
old  books  hide  from  us.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  say  that 
these  records  of  the  Mykenlanders  will  forever  remain 
sealed  to  us.  The  key  to  their  letters  and  language 
may  some  day  be  discovered.  Then  to  the  names  of 
Mykenlanders  already  known  from  the  traditions  of 
myth  and  poetry,  will  be  added  perhaps  a  long  list  of 
names  of  kings  and  lords  and  tribes  and  countries,  with 
details  about  expeditions  and  exploits  and  commerce 
and  society.  The  history  of  the  Mykenlanders  will 
then  become  more  exact  and  minute. 

Of  the  three  chief  fortress-cities  on  the  Argolid 
plain,  Argos  was  perhaps  the  most  ancient,  and  My- 
kenae  was  the  last  to  be  founded.  Story  has  preserved 
the  name  of  the  prince  who  built  the  high  and  frowning 
citadel  of  Mykenae.  It  was  Persevs,  the  son  of  Akri- 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     359 

sios.  Persevs  was  one  day  recreating  himself  by  hurl- 
ing the  quoit.  His  father,  the  king  of  Argos,  who  was 
looking  on,  stepped  inadvertently  into  the  line  of  the 
flying  stone,  and  being  struck  by  it  thus  met  the  death 
which  had  long  been  foretold  to  him.  Persevs  in  his 
grief  did  not  wish  to  reign  in  his  father's  stead  at 
Argos.  He  therefore  persuaded  Megapenthes,  king  of 
Tiryns,  to  exchange  kingly  territories  with  him.  Thus 
did  Megapenthes  go  to  reside  at  Argos,  and  Persevs 
received  the  Tirynthian  domains.  For  some  unknown 
reason  he  then  built  a  new  citadel  in  the  northern  end 
of  the  plain,  eight  miles  distant  from  Tiryns,  and  re- 
moved thither  the  seat  of  government.  Thus  did  the 
city  of  Mykenae  succeed  to  the  glory  and  pre-eminence 
of  Tiryns. 

The  hill  of  Mykenae  was  certainly  not  large  enough 
to  accommodate  the  dwelling  of  all  the  clansmen  who 
owed  fealty  to  Persevs  and  his  descendants.  On  the 
top  of  the  rock  dwelt  the  king  with  his  nearer  relations 
and  more  potent  retainers.  Others  of  the  clans  lived 
round  about  the  citadel,  on  the  adjoining  slopes. 
Others  still  dwelt  in  Tiryns  perhaps,  and  in  various 
walled  settlements  in  the  plain.  The  citadel  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  high  and  thick  wall.  This  circuit  wall 
is  even  yet  well  preserved.  Only  a  small  portion  of  it 
has  entirely  tumbled  over  the  precipitous  sides  of  the 
Chavos  ravine.  Nowhere  however  do  these  walls  yet 
stand  in  their  original  height.  The  area  inclosed  within 
the  walls  measures  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
in  length,  and  is  about  half  as  wide.  A  noticeable 
characteristic  in  the  architecture  of  these  walls,  and  in 
general  in  the  architecture  of  the  Mykenlanders  is 


360  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

bulky  massiveness.  The  walls  of  Mykenae  average  a 
thickness  of  about  sixteen  feet.  The  walls  do  not 
batter,  but  rise  perpendicularly.  Most  of  the  oldest 
portions  of  the  wall  resemble  the  massive  architecture 
of  Tiryns.  They  are  built  of  large  roughly  hewn 
blocks  of  stone  piled  upon  each  other  and  bonded  to- 
gether by  smaller  stones  and  mortar  of  clay.  But  there 
are  also  long  stretches  of  later  portions  of  it  built  in 
ashlar  masonry.  Here  the  stones  are  cut  into  square- 
cornered  blocks,  and  are  arranged  upon  each  other  in 
regular  horizontal  layers.  Then  there  are  also  places 
where  the  wall  is  in  polygonal  style.  In  these  places 
the  stones  are  carefully  cut  into  many-sided  angular 
shapes,  and  very  neatly  joined  together,  but  the  corners 
of  the  stones  are  seldom  right-angled.  The  existence 
of  these  three  different  styles  of  masonry  indicate  that 
the  walls  were  often  rebuilt  or  repaired. 

The  principal  entrance  into  the  citadel  was  through 
an  imposing  gate,  which  was  approached  by  a  gradually 
ascending  roadway.  As  this  roadway  nears  the  gate 
it  is  bounded  on  the  left  by  the  wall  of  the  citadel  and 
on  the  right  by  a  huge  stone  bastion.  It  would  not  be 
easy  for  a  foe  to  enter  through  this  gate  by  force.  The 
defenders  of  the  citadel  could  attack  all  such  intruders 
with  all  kinds  of  missiles  from  the  walls  and  from  the 
bastion.  This  is  the  famous  Gate  of  the  Lions.  The 
opening  through  the  gateway  is  nearly  ten  feet  wide 
and  slightly  more  than  ten  feet  high.  Massive  double 
doors  that  swung  on  pivots  for  hinges  used  to  close  this 
opening.  The  doorway  is  slightly  narrower  at  the  top 
than  at  the  bottom — a  characteristic  of  Mykenseic 
architecture.  The  gate  has  received  its  modern  name 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     361 

from  the  two  lions  sculptured  in  relief  upon  a  large 
triangular  stone  above  the  lintel  of  the  gate.  The  two 
lions  face  each  other  in  a  way  that  recall  to  mind  her- 
aldic representations  of  mediaeval  and  modern  times. 
Between  them  is  a  low  column  which  has  the  peculiarity 
of  being  of  greater  diameter  at  the  top  than  at  the 
bottom.  On  the  pedestal  of  this  column  the  heraldic 
lions  plant  their  forepaws.  The  faces  of  the  lions  were 
of  separate  pieces  of  stone  and  have  fallen  off.  The 
lions  looked  out  through  the  approach  to  the  citadel, 
as  though  to  threaten  off  all  unwelcome  comers.  This 
piece  of  sculpture  was  for  some  time  regarded  as  the 
most  ancient  example  of  extant  Greek  glyptic  art.  It 
no  longer  enjoys  this  distinguished  reputation,  but 
nevertheless  is  still  thought  to  be  the  most  remarkable 
specimen  of  the  epoch  to  which  it  belongs.  Besides- 
this  grand  Gate  of  the  Lions  there  was  another  nar- 
rower and  less  pompous  entrance  to  the  citadel  through 
a  postern  gateway. 

As  in  the  city  walls,  so  also  in  the  houses,  the  art  of 
building  had  in  these  remote  ages  reached  a  remarkable 
state  of  perfection.  This  is  proven  by  the  ruins  of  the 
palaces.  The  traces  of  the  palace  at  Mykense,  however, 
are  not  so  clear  as  are  those  at  Tiryns.  In  these  palaces 
there  was,  as  is  yet  the  custom  with  many  oriental 
peoples,  a  distinct  quarter  for  the  women.  The  life  of 
turmoil  and  warfare  and  other  semi-barbarous  activity 
that  kept  the  men  occupied,  rendered  them  not  desirous 
of  the  more  restful  and  secluded  company  of  the 
women.  Most  of  the  houses,  the  palaces  as  well, 
usually  had  but  one  story.  Of  the  men's  quarters  the 
busiest  and  most  frequented  part  was  the  large  hall  in 


362  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

the  center  of  which  was  the  great  open  fire,  the  hearth 
of  the  household.  Round  this  hearth  was  centered  all 
family  activity.  Here  the  women  might  also  come  and 
sit,  engaged  in  their  occupations  of  preparing  the  wool 
for  the  looms,  as  did  Queen  Arete  in  the  palace  of  the 
Phaeaks,  while  her  noble  lord  sat  leaning  against  one  of 
the  four  columns  round  the  hearth  quaffing  ruddy  wine. 
Enough  fragments  of  stucco  and  carvings  have  been 
found  to  teach  us  how  rich  and  how  tastefully  gorgeous 
were  the  decorations  of  the  ceilings  and  walls  of  these 
palaces.  The  inside  walls  were  entirely  frescoed  with 
decorations  chiefly  of  geometric  patterns  in  colors 
simple  but  harmoniously  arranged.  Mykenlandic  art, 
although  of  native  origin,  in  many  particulars  was  not 
without  foreign  influence.  In  these  rich  wall  frescoes 
such  influence  is  most  strongly  marked.  Inspiration 
must  certainly  have  come  betimes  to  these  lands  from 
the  country  of  the  Egyptians.  Commercial  relations 
with  Egypt  existed  as  far  back  as  the  sixteenth  century 
or  farther.  The  colors  which  prevail  in  the  wall-paint- 
ings of  the  Mykenlanders  were  chiefly  black,  white,  red, 
and  yellow.  The  door  frames  and  other  parts  of  these 
houses  were  adorned  with  ornamentation  of  bronze  and 
other  costly  material.  A  semi-barbaric  splendor  pre- 
vailed indeed  throughout  these  halls. 

Inside  of  this  citadel  was  discovered  a  number  of 
tombs  which  have  become  noted  on  account  of  the 
splendid  ornaments  and  weapons  and  trinkets  that  were 
found  in  them  by  Schliemann.  These  are  the  so-called 
"Royal  Graves."  Six  of  these  graves  were  found 
within  a  circular  inclosure.  Swords  and  daggers  and 
spearheads  and  arrowheads  were  found  in  them.  Gold 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     363 

masks  were  found  on  the  faces  of  the  buried  dead,  and 
gold  ornaments  in  profusion.  Useless  and  futile  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  identify  these  graves  as  those 
of  Homeric  personages.  Nameless  they  must  remain. 

More  remarkable  than  the  royal  shaft  graves  on  the 
citadel  are  the  magnificent  domed  tombs  of  beehive 
shape  that  have  been  found  in  the  lower  city  round  the 
foot  of  the  citadel.  These  have  been  constructed  under 
hills,  and  the  entrance  to  each  one  was  through  a  long 
passage  starting  from  the  side  of  the  hill.  The  largest 
tomb  of  this  kind  is  known  by  a  misnomer.  It  has 
been  called  "The  Treasury  of  Atrevs."  The  passage 
which  leads  into  it  is  twenty  feet  wide  and  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  feet  long.  The  vertical  stone-built  sides  rise 
higher  as  one  approaches  the  tomb  under  the  hill.  In 
front  of  the  door  to  the  tomb  these  walls  rise  about 
forty-five  feet  above  the  level  of. the  door  sill.  The 
doorway  which  leads  into  the  vault  is  almost  eighteen 
feet  high  and  more  than  eight  feet  wide.  Two  huge 
stones  form  the  lintel  of  the  door.  One  of  these  is  more 
than  twenty-nine  feet  long  and  more  than  sixteen  feet 
in  breadth.  Its  weight  has  been  estimated  at  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  tons.  The  interior  of  the  tomb 
is  circular  at  the  bottom,  having  a  diameter  of  about 
forty-eight  feet,  and  rises,  shaped  like  a  beehive,  to  a 
height  about  equal  to  the  diameter.  It  is  built  of  well- 
cut  stone  in  regular  ashlar  layers.  Other  tombs  of  this 
magnificent  type  are  found  not  only  here  at  Mykenae, 
but  also  elsewhere  in  Mykenland. 

What  has  been  learned  about  the  religion  of  the 
Mykenlanders  is  very  little.  Possibly  in  the  earlier 
centuries  of  this  epoch,  ancestor  worship  may  have 


364  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

been  common.  At  least  libations  and  offerings  used  to 
be  dedicated  to  the  departed,  and  over  the  royal  graves 
on  the  citadel  an  altar  was  found  with  a  hole  in  the 
middle,  through  which  libations  may  have  been  poured 
down  into  the  earth  where  the  bodies  rested.  That 
the  Mykenlanders  possessed  a  religion  is  beyond  all 
doubt.  No  remains,  however,  have  been  discovered 
that  can  with  any  certainty  be  recognized  as  a  temple. 
Still  we  cannot  say  that  no  temples  existed.  At  least 
these  peoples  must  have  had  sacred  shrines.  Their 
religion  was  ikonic,  and  representations  of  some  of 
their  deities  are  easily  recognizable.  They  worshiped 
not  only  their  ancestors,  but  also  other  gods.  These 
gods  are  sometimes  represented  in  human  shape  and 
sometimes  as  monsters.  Their  religion  was  accordingly 
both  anthropomorphic  and  theriomorphic.  One  can 
recognize  demons  of  the  water  and  springs,  demons 
of  the  woods,  and  demons  of  the  chase.  These  last  are 
certainly  connected  with  some  worship  not  unlike  to 
certain  forms  of  the  cult  of  the  classical  Artemis,  the 
woodland  goddess.  There  is  some  reason  for  thinking 
that  in  their  places  of  worship  the  Mykenlanders  some- 
times had  an  empty  throne,  the  seat  of  some  invisible 
deity.  Zevs  also  was  worshiped,  and  his  symbol  was 
a  double  ax.  Hera  and  Aphrodite  were  likewise 
possibly  among  the  deities  of  those  days.  At  least  a 
most  ancient  shrine  of  Hera  existed  in  the  Argolid 
and  it  was  in  this  temple  that  Agamemnon  was 
selected  by  the  assembled  chieftains  to  lead  them  in 
their  expedition  against  Troy,  as  a  traditional  story 
goes.  The  Mykenlanders  also  paid  homage  to  a  sea- 
god.  It  need  not  be  thought,  however,  that  all  these 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     365 

deities  were  worshiped  by  all  the  Mykenlanders.  Each 
locality  had  its  preferences  and  local  traditions. 

Although  the  civilization  and  culture  of  the  Myken- 
landers were  peculiarly  native  to  the  .^Egean  and  the 
near  mainlands,  it  is  well  known  that  vigorous  com- 
munication existed  between  them  and  other  peoples. 
They  were  in  touch  with  Asia.  They  owed  some  of 
their  knowledge  and  skill  in  handicraft  to  foreign 
peoples.  Possibly  from  the  Babylonians  they  first 
learned  the  use  of  bronze.  Nevertheless  their  inter- 
course with  the  great  nations  round  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates  was  perhaps  not  direct.  Their  contact  with 
the  Egyptians,  however,  was  more  close.  Mykenseic 
wares  are  found  in  Egyptian  tombs,  and  Egyptian  craft 
and  art  made  its  impress  on  the  workmanship  of  the 
Mykenlanders.  But  despite  all  foreign  influence,  My- 
kenaeic  civilization  remained  European  and  generated 
the  classical  Hellenic.  Their  goldsmiths  with  their 
admirably  perfected  skill  as  shown  in  the  seal-rings 
and  ornaments  and  embossed  cups,  their  gem-engrav- 
ers, their  metal  workers,  who  made  the  wonderfully 
wrought  inlaid  daggers  of  bronze,  their  vase-makers, 
who  fashioned  vessels  of  clay  that  were  in  demand  in 
far-off  lands,  their  builders  who  erected  the  fortress 
walls  and  constructed  the  splendid  tombs,  their  workers 
in  gold  and  silver  and  bronze  and  lead  and  stone  and 
terra-cotta  and  glass-paste — all  evinced  a  freedom  of 
hand  and  spirit,  an  accuracy  of  conception,  a  natural- 
ness and  mastership  that  was  not  foreign,  was  not 
imported.  It  was  native.  It  was  the  first  stage  of 
Hellenic  life  and  art. 

After  the  Perseids  had  long  held  high  sway  over  the 


366  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

city  of  Mykenae,  their  dynasty  succumbed  before  a  new 
king,  said  to  be  of  foreign  origin,  of  the  house  of 
Pelops.  To  this  new  dynasty  belonged  the  hero  Aga- 
memnon, whose  greatness  and  rule  over  the  Achseans 
from  his  seat  in  much-golden  Mykenae  are  besung  by 
the  poets  of  the  Iliadic  Epic.  Under  the  rule  of  these 
Pelopid  kings,  Mykenae  rose  to  her  zenith  of  glory. 
Agamemnon,  who  was  the  chief  lord,  not  only  of  the 
Argolid,  but  of  the  neighboring  islands,  personifies  the 
power  of  this  city  in  those  mighty  days.  Afterward 
when  this  great  period  was  half  forgotten  and  the 
minstrels  sang  of  the  glory  that  once  was,  they  took 
Mykenae  and  Troy  as  their  model  Mykenlandic  cities, 
and  Agamemnon  as  the  mightiest  ruler.  For  after  the 
lapse  of  ages,  sad  days  came  to  Mykenae  and  the  Argo- 
lid. New  and  much  more  barbarous  tribes,  though 
perhaps  akin,  came  down  into  this  desirable  plain. 
Dorian  war-men  became  masters  of  the  fortress-towns 
of  Argolis.  About  eleven  hundred  years  before  Christ 
these  untamed  invaders  came  into  the  Peloponnesos. 
The  palace  of  the  Pelopids  on  Mykenae's  citadel  was 
laid  low  by  fire.  Blackened  remains  and  ashes  still 
testify  to  this.  Then  the  conquerors  took  up  their 
abode  among  the  ruins  of  the  conquered.  The  progress 
of  civilization  was  retarded.  For  two  or  three  cen- 
turies new  barbarism  enthroned  its  dark  might  among 
the  Mykenlanders.  But  with  time  the  checked  and 
repressed  spirit  again  began  to  grow  afresh.  A  new 
day  began  to  dawn  over  these  lands  that  had  for  a  time 
been  darkened  by  the  Dorian  clouds.  Art  and  science 
and  intellectuality  again  prevailed.  Greece  began  her 
interrupted  course  anew.  And  in  the  progress  of  time 


THE  ARGOLID  AND  THE  MYKENLANDERS     367 

she  again  rose  to  inimitable  glory.  That  was  when  she 
entered  into  the  classical  period.  But  at  that  time 
Tiryns  was  merely  a  village  and  Mykenae  was  not  much 
larger.  Nevertheless  they  disappear  nobly  from  his- 
tory. On  the  roll  of  honor  written  to  enumerate  and 
commemorate  those  who  helped  to  drive  away  the  hosts 
of  Xerxes  we  can  read  the  words  "From  Mykenae 
and  Tiryns,  four  hundred." 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE 

Philology,  co-operating  with  kindred  sciences  in 
the  uneasy  search  after  the  origins  of  peoples  and 
customs  and  languages,  has  discovered  many  a  signifi- 
cant fact  regarding  the  historic  beginnings  and  intel- 
lectual progress  of  various  races  of  men.  Not  the 
smallest  addition  to  science  in  this  direction  has  been 
the  discovery  and  decipherment  of  various  written 
languages  belonging  to  nations  whose  civilized  career 
antedates  by  many  centuries  the  events  recorded  on 
the  earliest  pages  of  ordinary  history.  Where  these 
studies  have  not  brought  us  into  new  and  correct  cog- 
nizance of  the  origins  of  certain  peoples  or  institutions, 
at  least  they  have  often  suggested  to  us  new  principles 
of  investigation.  And  to  the  scientist  the  determi- 
nation of  principles  is  sometimes  more  acceptable 
than  the  discovery  of  origins.  Through  the  unrid- 
dling of  her  old  hieroglyphic  signs  Egypt  has  broken 
her  mystic  silence  and  is  narrating  to  the  disciples  of 
Champollion  the  strange  details  of  her  distant 
antiquity.  Venerable  Babylon  and  adjacent  countries 
are  now  neither  mute  nor  do  they  speak  to  us  in 
unintelligible  tongues  ever  since  Grotefend  in  the  first 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  began  to  find  out  how 
to  read  the  cuneiform  records.  Karians  and  Lykians 
and  other  Anatolic  peoples,  who  had  been  kept  to  our 
knowledge  only  through  the  unsatisfactory  notices  of 
the  classic  Greek  writers,  are  now  enjoying  a  fresh 
after-fame  because  inscriptions  in  their  languages  are 

368 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  AEGEAN     369 

beginning  to  be  discovered.  Even  the  Hittites,  a  people 
whose  once  powerful  and  important  existence  had 
been  entirely  forgotten,  will  finally  give  out  some  of 
their  history  to  the  world  of  scholars,  although  their 
inscriptions  on  the  rocks  of  Asia  Minor,  Chaldaea,  and 
Syria  still  baffle  the  skill  of  such  scholars  as  Sayce 
and  Menant  and  Peiser. 

Even  within  the  bounds  of  Greek  lands,  monu- 
ments inscribed  in  letters  belonging  to  a  long-lost 
system  of  writing  were  discovered  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  These  non-Hellenic  characters  which 
have  been  intelligibly  legible  since  1873,  or  somewhat 
earlier,  were  found  on  coins  and  other  objects  with 
inscriptions  in  the  island  of  Kypros  which  lies  on  the 
highway  between  the  Anatolian  and  the  western 
world,  and  has  therefore  always  been  partly  European 
in  its  civilization  and  partly  Asiatic.  At  first  it  might 
have  been  hoped  that  this  discovery  would  consider- 
ably broaden  our  knowledge  concerning  the  earlier  ages 
of  Hellenic  civilization.  But  all  such  hopes  soon 
dwindled  into  small  proportions  when  it  became  evi- 
dent that  this  new-found  alphabet  of  Kypros  revealed 
to  us  no  documents  older  than  the  fourth  century 
before  Christ.  The  only  fact  that  need  be  added  here 
concerning  these  enchorial  Kypric  characters  is  that 
evidently  they  were  not  originally  intended  for  the 
Greek  language,  although  such  is  the  language  of  these 
Kypric  inscriptions.  Each  character  represents  an 
entire  syllable  rather  than  a  simple  phonetic  sound. 
Accordingly  the  set  of  characters  constitute  a  "sylla- 
bary" and  not  an  "alphabet,"  as  the  latter  term  is 


370  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

usually  understood.    Where  and  when  this  Kypric  syl- 
labary originated  is  still  unknown. 

In  the  second  millennium  before  our  era  a  remark- 
able civilization  flourished  in  the  islands  and  main- 
land round  about  the  ^Egean  Sea.  Until  some  twenty 
or  thirty  years  ago,  all  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
quondam  existence  of  this  civilization  had  been  lost. 
For  it  is  only  as  a  result  of  the  archaeological  investi- 
gations that  followed  the  successful  excavations  of 
the  explorer  Schliemann  in  Argolis  of  Greece  and  at 
Troy  of  Asia  Minor  that  the  rise  and  spread  and 
downfall  of  a  pre-Homeric  civilization  came  to  be 
accorded  a  place  among  admitted  historic  facts.  In 
the  selecting  of  a  name  for  this  prehistoric  and  pre- 
Hellenic  period  of  civilization,  much  stress  is  laid  on 
the  fact  that  the  first  evidence  of  its  power  and  mag- 
nificence had  been  found  in  the  Argolid  city  of 
Mykenae.  "The  Mykenseic  Age"  therefore  is  the  con- 
ventional name  for  that  unique  period  of  human 
development  and  culture  which  is  computed  to  have 
been  well  in  its  ascendency  earlier  than  1,500  years 
before  Christ,  and  to  have  tragically  come  to  a  pre- 
mature end  about  1,000  years  before  our  era.  In  the 
age  during  which  the  familiar  Homeric  poems  were 
composed,  the  culture  which  had  been  sustained  by 
many  generations  of  Mykenaeic  peoples  had  long  since 
entirely  disappeared.  There  grew  up  a  newer  phase 
of  human  activity,  inaugurated  by  the  incoming  of 
new,  and,  at  first,  ruder  tribes  of  men.  Neverthe- 
less, the  splendors  of  Mykenaeic  days  were  still  dimly 
recalled  in  the  songs  of  the  troubadours  and  in  the 
myths  of  folk-story  and  cult,  even  though  no  clear  his- 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  JEGEAN     371 

torical  consciousness  of  this  former  and  faded  glory 
had  been  transmitted  to  the  men  of  the  age  in  which 
the  Homeric  poems  were  made.  The  duty  of  redis- 
covering it  and  of  restoring  it  to  its  proper  pedestal  of 
honor  among  the  epochs  of  human  progress  has 
agreeably  fallen  to  the  lot  of  modern  historians. 

Since  the  archaeological  discoveries  demonstrate 
that  this  splendid  period  of  culture  had  spread  its 
influence  over  a  large  and  populous  area  and  had 
endured  for  so  many  centuries,  scholars  were  some- 
what disappointed  by  the  fact  that  no  positive  indica- 
tions of  any  sort  could  be  unearthed  which  would 
strengthen  if  not  demonstrate  the  logical  assumption 
that  these  otherwise  highly  intelligent  men  were  not 
entirely  without  some  technical  system  of  recording 
events  and  of  communicating  with  each  other  by 
written  messages.  Indeed,  the  strange  belief  that 
throughout  the  entirety  of  their  long  career  the  Myke- 
nseic  peoples  continued  to  be  ignorant  of  letters,  began 
to  cease  from  being  considered  as  untenable.  Never- 
theless, on  historical  grounds  such  a  belief  was  not 
logical,  for  most  peoples  who  in  any  near  way  approach 
to  the  degree  of  civilization  then  prevalent  in  the 
^gean  possess  and  employ  some  method  of  record- 
ing thought.  Moreover,  other  nations,  who,  like  the 
Egyptians  and  the  Babylonians,  were  contemporaries 
of  the  Mykenseic  peoples,  and  were  in  regular  inter- 
course with  them,  already  possessed  well-developed 
systems  of  writing,  and  if  the  men  of  the  ^Egean  had 
not  native  writing  signs,  at  least  they  might  have 
adopted  some  one  of  the  methods  in  vogue  among 
their  neighbors. 


372  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

But  in  the  year  1880,  the  American  traveler  Still- 
man,  while  visiting  the  Island  of  Krete,  observed  and 
noted  certain  peculiar  signs  incised  on  large  blocks 
of  gypsum  that  formed  the  facing  of  the  walls  of  a 
prehistoric  building  on  the  deserted  site  of  the  ancient 
town  of  Knosos.  Stillman's  scholarly  acumen  led 
him  rightly  to  conjecture  that  the  ruins  which  he  saw 
here  must  be  the  remains  of  the  famous  "labyrinth"  of 
Kretan  legend,  and  that  the  signs  which  were  marked 
on  the  blocks  of  gypsum  must  be  characters  pertaining 
to  some  kind  of  writing. 

The  next  forewarning  which  indicated  that  finally 
records  dating  from  the  Mykenaeic  Age  would  proba- 
bly come  to  light,  happened  in  the  year  1889.  Doctor 
Tsountas,  during  the  progress  of  excavations  which 
he  then  was  conducting  at  Mykense  on  the  top  of  the 
citadel  there,  found  a  small  pestle  of  stone  on  which 
a  group  of  a  few  simple  characters  was  incised. 
These  characters  may  possibly  be  a  mark  indicating 
the  owner  or  maker  of  this  household  utensil.  It  was 
soon  observed  that  one  of  the  signs  in  this  short 
inscription  seems  to  resemble  one  of  the  letters  in  the 
previously  known  Kypric  syllabary. 

Similarly  other  letter-like  signs  were  found  sporad- 
ically at  other  places.  And  at  last,  in  the  year  1893, 
the  reasonably  suspected  existence  of  Mykenaeic  writ- 
ing was  turned  into  indubitable  fact.  Mr.  A.  J. 
Evans,  keeper  of  the  Ashmolean  Museum,  in  the 
course  of  a  voyage  of  discovery  in  eastern  Krete, 
found  in  the  possession  of  the  inhabitants  a  large 
number  of  odd-shaped  gems  and  other  small  stones 
inscribed  with  signs  which  certainly  appeared,  even 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  JEGEAN     373 

at  first  examination,  to  be  letters  of  a  hitherto 
unknown  variety.  By  their  peculiar  technique  and 
material  these  gems  and  stones  testify  in  their  own 
behalf  that  they  are  very  ancient,  and  indisputably 
date  back  to  the  remotest  centuries  of  the  Mykenseic 
Age.  Some  of  them  are  beanlike  in  shape,  and 
others  are  glandular.  Some  of  them  may  have  origi- 
nally been  intended  to  be  used  as  amulets  and  worn 
on  the  body  as  protective  against  certain  evil  influ- 
ences and  misfortunes,  while  others  were  certainly 
intended  to  be  used  as  seals  or  signets.  While  these 
incised  seal-stones  have  been  found  most  plentifully 
of  all  in  Krete,  they  also  are  sometimes  discovered 
elsewhere,  chiefly  on  the  islands,  however,  and  on  this 
account  they  have  come  to  be  frequently  mentioned  as 
"Island  Gems." 

When,  by  successive  and  abundant  finds,  the  num- 
ber of  Mykenseic  objects  with  inscriptions  on  them 
became  large  enough  to  justify  an  attempt  at  a  com- 
parative study  of  the  various  characters  inscribed,  it 
immediately  became  apparent  that  more  than  one  dis- 
tinct system  of  writing  were  represented  on  these 
engraved  objects.  At  least  two  styles  of  character 
could  be  recognized.  One  of  these  employed  pictorial 
or  hieroglyphic  signs.  Herein  a  comparison  with 
Egyptian  writing  was  immediately  suggested.  The 
other  style  was  made  up  of  letters  which  were  cut 
in  a  less  pictorial  way  and  in  more  linear  shapes,  and 
therefore  present  a  quasi-alphabetic  appearance  dis- 
tantly resembling  even  modern  letters. 

The  plausible  theory  that  most  systems  of  writing 
have  started  from  crude  and  simple  picture-writing 


374  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

receives  additional  confirmation  from  both  these 
classes  of  pre-Hellenic  ^Egean  writing.  As  regards 
the  pictographic  signs,  it  has  been  noticed  that  three 
well-marked  stages  may  clearly  be  traced  in  their 
gradual  develppment  from  primitive  image-writing  up 
through  a  transitional  period  in  which  the  characters 
are  in  part  still  the  original  images  and  in  part  abbre- 
viated and  conventionalized  hieroglyphs,  finally 
becoming  in  the  third  stage  a  completely  convention- 
alized hieroglyphic  or  pictographic  symbol,  then  no 
longer  representing  simply  what  is  indicated  by  the 
rudely  outlined  primitive  picture,  but  expressing  some 
additional  or  even  entirely  different  thought  or  word 
which  in  the  course  of  time  came  to  be  associated  with 
that  primitive  picture.  However,  the  dissimilarity 
which  these  three  grades  bear  toward  each  other  is 
one  which  is  the  natural  result  of  growth  and  develop- 
ment, and  indicates  no  radical  difference.  All  three 
grades  are  therefore  properly  included  under  one 
general  name.  They  are  known  as  "Pictographs." 

That  the  second  kind  of  Mykenaeic  writing,  which 
Mr.  Evans  properly  calls  "linear"  script,  is  an  out- 
growth from  the  original  or  ideographic  forms  of 
these  pictographs  which  we  have  just  been  consider- 
ing is  quite  improbable,  although  this  linear  script 
undoubtedly  had  some  kind  of  image-writing  for  its 
original  form.  The  most  acceptable  supposition 
which  the  present  state  of  the  question  permits  is  that 
the  two  kinds  of  writing  sprang  up  each  independent 
of  the  other  and  from  an  independent  set  of  original 
images.  It  may  therefore  be  now  accepted  as  an  indis- 
putably ascertained  historical  truth  that  within  the 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  AEGEAN     375 

boundaries  of  the  pre-Hellenic  Greek  world  there  con- 
temporaneously existed  at  least  two  different  and 
separate  kinds  of  writing.  Thus  have  the  inhabitants 
of  the  ancient  Mykenseic  kingdoms  lately  gained  new 
glory  in  the  eyes  of  the  modern  world  because  of  the 
satisfied  conviction  that  they  were  not  entirely  igno- 
rant of  letters. 

Now,  after  archaeological  discovery  and  philologi- 
cal investigation  have  promulgated  the  former  exist- 
ence of  these  systems  of  writing  in  Greek  lands  during 
the  Mykenaeic  Age,  the  persuasion  more  and  more 
irresistibly  asserts  itself  that  we  would  be  unable  to 
reasonably  understand  so  perfect  and  high  a  civiliza- 
tion as  the  Mykenseic  without  postulating  the  con- 
temporary prevalence  of  some  kind  of  writing  there. 
On  a-priori  grounds  writing  must  be  enumerated 
among  the  Mykenaeic  arts,  since  it  is  now  evident 
that  this  art  was  known  among  other  and  less  highly 
advanced  peoples  of  Europe.  All  branches  of  anthro- 
pological and  ethnical  studies  converge  to  the  belief 
that  in  the  islands  of  the  ^Egean  and  on  the  shores  of 
the  adjacent  mainlands  we  ought  to  locate  one  of  the 
very  early  centers  of  culture  in  Europe.  In  other 
parts  of  European  territory,  as,  for  instance,  in 
Northern  Italy,  where  prehistoric  civilization  was  not 
in  a  state  of  such  advanced  perfection  as  it  was  in  the 
^Egean,  there  are,  nevertheless,  visible  indications  that 
there  existed  the  ability  and  habit  of  recording  events 
or  facts  in  some  way. 

After  becoming  a  convert  to  the  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Mykenaeic  or  pre-Homeric  writing,  it  is 
possible  more  intelligently  to  interpret  the  dim  refer- 


376  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

ence  in  the  Iliad  to  some  kind  of  writing  which  is 
mentioned  as  having  been  in  vogue  during  the  remote 
ages  made  memorable  by  the  deeds  of  Homer's  heroes, 
and  to  put  some  kind  of  credence  in  the  myth  which 
attributed  to  Palamedes  the  invention  of  a  system  of 
writing.  In  a  celebrated  passage  of  the  Iliad  it  is  nar- 
rated that  Proetos,  who  was  king  of  Argos  in  Myke- 
nseic  or  possibly  pre-Mykenaeic  times,  sent  a  written 
and  sealed  message  from  his  palace  at  Tiryns  to  his 
father-in-law  in  Lykia  of  Asia  Minor,  the  import  of 
this  secret  message  being  that  Bellerophon,  the  bearer 
of  it,  should  be  put  to  death,  for  he  had  sinned  against 
the  honor  of  the  house  of  Proetos.  Proetos'  dreadful 
letter,  his  "semata  lygra,"  was  probably  expressed  not 
by  linear  characters,  but  by  hieroglyphic  signs.  Thus 
are  woven  into  one  of  the  episodes  of  the  Iliad  threads 
from  an  obscure  recollection  of  the  fact  that  the  long- 
vanished  men  of  the  great  Mykenseic  Age  had  some 
pictorial  or  graphic  way  of  corresponding  with  each 
other.  Likewise  the  story  of  Palamedes  now  would 
seem  to  have  been  built  upon  some  foundation  of 
truth.  For  he  also  belonged  to  this  prehistoric  age, 
and  lived  in  the  Mykenseic  town  of  Navplion  in  the 
Argolid,  where  some  vestiges  of  writings  have  been 
found  in  the  course  of  the  excavations  carried  on  dur- 
ing these  last  years.  The  myth,  however,  which 
bestows  on  Palamedes  the  honor  of  being  the  inventor 
of  writing  is  only  dimly  known  to  us.  For  the  Greeks 
of  historic  times  employed  the  so-called  Phoenikian 
alphabet  which,  according  to  a  later  myth,  was  intro- 
duced into  Greece  from  Phcenikia  by  Kadmos.  This 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  AEGEAN     377 

Kadmean  story  may  have  overshadowed  the  Palame- 
dean  one. 

It  is  on  the  Island  of  Krete  that  the  most  valuable 
collections  of  documents  with  pre-Hellenic  writings 
on  them  have  been  discovered.  This  may  be  due 
merely  to  chance;  but  nevertheless  Krete  has  been  so 
eminently  and  graciously  the  land  of  these  finds  as  to 
make  it  easy  of  belief  that  the  Kretans  more  than 
any  other  Mykenaeic  nation  made  frequent  use  of  the 
practice  of  keeping  records,  and  brought  this  civiliz- 
ing art  to  considerable  perfection.  The  degree  of  kin- 
ship existing  between  the  Kretan  methods  of  writing 
and  the  methods  used  by  the  other  contemporaneous 
inhabitants  of  Mykenseic  countries  has  not  yet  been 
ascertained.  It  may  even  be  possible  to  suspect  that 
the  specimens  discovered  in  other  places  belong  not 
to  the  same  system  as  do  the  Kretan  documents,  but 
to  independent  and  perhaps  less  frequently  employed 
and  less  advanced  methods.  One  reason  why  the 
quantity  of  written  documents  discovered  in  Krete 
exceeds  so  surprisingly  the  quantities  found  elsewhere 
is  possibly  because  in  Krete  use  was  made  of  writing 
material  of  a  less  perishable  nature  than  may  have  com- 
monly been  selected  for  this  purpose  in  the  other  parts 
of  the  Mykenasic  world.  Among  other  races  whose 
degree  of  civilization  corresponds  somewhat  to  that  of 
the  Mykenaeic  peoples  it  is  not  always  the  less  perish- 
able material  of  stone  or  bronze  or  other  similarly  dur- 
able substances  that  is  used  for  writing  upon,  but 
rather  leaves  and  bark,  and  leather  and  other  cheap 
and  practical  but  easily  destructible  stuffs  of  this  kind. 
Even  in  Krete  the  finds  are  not  as  rich  and  important 


378  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

as  they  would  have  been  if  solid  and  lasting  materials 
had  been  exclusively  in  use  here  as  material  to  write 
upon.  We  have  some  testimony  preserved  in  litera- 
ture to  the  effect  that  these  old  Kretans  were  practi- 
cal enough  to  also  use  more  easily  manageable 
material  and  to  have  had  the  habit  of  writing  on  cer- 
tain kinds  of  leaves. 

The  seal-stones  and  gems  which  bear  the  picto- 
graphic  letterings  have  been  found  mostly  in  eastern 
Krete.  A  number  of  them  were  procured  by  pur- 
chase from  the  village  women  there.  Most  of  them 
are  cut  from  steatite,  or  soapstone,  a  mineral  which 
exists  in  large  quantities  in  Krete.  They  owe  their 
long  and  good  preservation  not  to  the  insignificant 
money  value  of  the  material  from  which  they  are 
made,  but  simply  to  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
regarded  as  amulets,  and  for  ages  the  successive  gen- 
erations of  Kretan  women  have  been  wearing  them 
as  such  attached  to  a  string  which  they  tie  round  the 
neck.  Possibly  their  original  purpose  was,  as  already 
stated,  in  part  amuletic. 

Fortunately  our  knowledge  of  these  pictographs  is 
not  confined  to  what  we  get  from  the  steatite  seal- 
stones  and  amulets.  For  at  Knosos,  which  lies  in  the 
central  part  of  Krete,  and  which  was  in  Mykenseic 
days  the  palace  of  the  powerful  and  terrible  king 
Minos,  whose  after-fame  made  him  a  mythic  hero,  a 
great  quantity  of  clay  tablets,  clay  labels,  and  other 
such  objects  have  been  dug  up  by  Mr.  Evans,  bearing 
inscriptions,  some  in  pictographic  characters  and 
others  in  linear  script.  These  clay  inscribed  tablets 
are  not  very  different  in  shape  from  those  already  so 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  ^GEAN     379 

well  known  to  scholars  from  the  large  finds  of  cunei- 
form inscriptions  at  Babylon.  This  striking  identity 
of  a  peculiar  writing  material  in  Babylon  and  in  Krete 
need  be  the  occasion  for  no  surprise.  Communication 
between  the  islands  of  the  yEgean  and  distant  Baby- 
lon in  the  Bronze  Age  is  otherwise  well  authenticated. 
In  the  Mediterranean  region — on  the  island  of  Kypros, 
more  exactly — there  has  been  found  a  genuine 
imported  Babylonian  tablet  with  cuneiform  writing 
upon  it.  It  was  certainly  brought  into  this  part  of  the 
world  from  Babylon  at  a  very  early  date. 

The  greatest  quantity  of  the  clay  tablets  of  Myke- 
naeic  Knosos  bear  linear  script.  In  fact,  outside  of  one 
single  deposit  of  pictographic  tablets  all  the  others  are 
of  the  linear  script. 

Inasmuch  as  the  most  primitive  of  these  picto- 
graphs  belonged  to  a  variety  of  pure  image-writing, 
they  were  intended  to  convey  no  other  thoughts  than 
those  portrayed  by  the  picture,  or  else  suggested  by  it, 
at  least  remotely.  But  how  far  they  gradually 
departed  from  being  ideographs,  coming  to  stand  not 
so  much  for  a  concrete  object  as  for  a  word  or  defi- 
nite articulate  sound  or  for  the  name  of  the  object,  and 
ultimately,  in  their  upward  progress  toward  perfec- 
tion, to  indicate  a  syllabic  sound,  as  did  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphs  and  the  Kypric  characters,  cannot  yet 
be  determined.  However,  the  peculiar  groupings  of 
the  characters  as  noticed  on  some  of  the  seal  stones 
would  lead  to  the  conjecture  that  the  Kretan  picto- 
graphs,  in  their  latest  stage,  had  indeed  come  to  have 
a  syllabic  value.  But  this  is  the  very  highest  per- 


380  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

fection  that  can  be  claimed  for  them.  They  certainly 
never  became  purely  phonetic. 

Although  no  one  has  yet  been  able  to  read  a  single 
word  from  these  pictographic  seals,  and,  therefore, 
there  is  no  way  of  our  knowing  with  any  kind  of 
appreciable  preciseness  the  contents  of  the  inscrip- 
tions, nevertheless  now  and  then  the  pictographic 
quality  of  the  signs  conveys  even  to  us  something  of 
the  idea  which  was  to  be  conveyed  to  the  original 
Mykenaeic  observers  or  readers.  Thus  we  can  get  a 
distant  view  of  the  meaning  of  such  signs  as  a  ship, 
or  jars  filled  with  grain,  or  milk  pots,  etc.  But  even 
in  such  exceptional  cases  the  faint  idea  comes  to  us 
unclothed  by  any  Mykenaeic  word,  and  therefore 
through  these  inscriptions  we  have  yet  learned 
nothing  about  the  language  of  the  Mykenaeic  Kretans. 

It  is  not  improbably  asserted  that  since  there  flour- 
ished in  Krete  two  distinct  and  apparently  unrelated 
systems  of  writing,  there  may  have  been  a  reason  for 
it  in  the  fact  that  each  kind  of  writing  represented 
either  a  different  language  or  a  clearly  different  dia- 
lect. Now  the  fact  that  the  pictographs  have,  with 
the  exception  of  those  on  the  tablets  of  a  single  deposit 
at  Knosos,  nearly  all  been  found  in  eastern  Krete  is 
coupled  with  the  other  fact  that  in  very  early  historic 
times  this  eastern  part  of  the  island  was  inhabited  by 
a  peculiar  race  of  men  known  from  the  Homeric 
poems  as  Eteokretans;  and  the  opinion  has  been  har- 
bored that  the  pictographic  inscriptions  especially 
represent  the  language  of  these  Eteokretans.  Credi- 
bility is  added  to  this  opinion  by  the  recent  discovery 
of  two  inscriptions  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  town  of 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  JEGEAN     381 

Prsesos  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  island,  written  indeed 
in  a  legible  Greek  alphabet  of  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ,  but  yet  in  a  language  which  has  not  been 
identified  as  being  Hellenic.  Some  have  suspected  that 
it  is  not  even  of  the  Indo-European  family  of  lan- 
guages. Archaeologists  of  four  different  nations, 
English,  French,  Italians,  and  Americans,  have  dur- 
ing the  last  few  years  been  feverishly  exploring  and 
excavating  in  eastern  Krete  with  the  hope  of  dis- 
covering some  more  decisive  clue  to  the  language  of 
the  Eteokretans.  And  perhaps  some  fortunate  dis- 
covery here  may  eventually  furnish  the  magic  key  to 
their  language  and  to  the  reading  of  the  pictographs. 
For  that  the  Eteokretan  language  was  preserved  down 
to  as  late  as  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  seems 
proven  by  these  two  inscriptions  of  Prsesos. 

There  accordingly  exists  much  doubt  as  to  whether 
the  pictographs  of  Krete  are  the  carriers  of  a  non- 
Hellenic  tongue  or  not.  But  as  regards  their  indige- 
nous origin  no  such  wide  room  for  doubt  exists. 
They  were  certainly  developed  here  in  the  ^Egean, 
and  quite  possibly  within  the  limits  of  the  island  of 
Krete.  They  do,  indeed,  show  some  affinities  to 
other  systems  of  hieroglyphic  writings,  especially  to 
that  of  the  Egyptians  and  of 'the  Hittites,  but  yet  are 
essentially  different  from  the  one  and  from  the  other. 
These  similarities  are  due  in  part  to  the  very  nature 
of  ideographic  writing,  in  part  to  the  influence  of 
intercommunication — for  the  intercourse  with  Egypt 
and  with  the  countries  of  Anatolia  and  northern  Syria, 
where  the  Hittites  dwelt,  was  regular  and  strong — 
and  also  in  part  to  direct  copying.  Admittedly  there 


382  HELLADTAN  VISTAS 

are  in  the  Kretan  pictographs  a  few  characters  which 
seem  to  have  been  borrowed  straight  from  the  Egyp- 
tians. 

Since  these  pictographs  are  images  of  things  that 
were  familiar  to  the  Mykenseic  people  of  Krete,  they 
very  instructively  illustrate  for  us  the  civilization  of 
those  days.  From  the  discoveries  made  up  to  the 
present  time  more  than  one  hundred  different  pictorial 
signs  or  separate  pictographs  have  been  recognized 
and  classified  according  to  their  form.  Among  these 
are  depicted,  for  example,  weapons,  implements, 
instruments,  household  utensils,  fishes,  animals,  birds, 
plants,  heavenly  bodies.  It  is  unnecessary  to  sepa- 
rately take  up  each  one  of  these  and  other  similar  pic- 
tographs to  show  in  detail  what  rich  additions  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  Mykenaeic  civilization  may  be  gained 
therefrom.  The  lyre  was  already  known  for  it  is 
among  the  pictographs.  It  is  represented  as  having 
eight  strings. 

The  pictographs  occur  most  frequently  in  small 
groups  of  from  two  to  seven  characters.  From  the 
direction  in  which  the  pictographs  face,  it  seems  that 
many  of  the  inscriptions  were  to  be  read  from 
right  to  left,  as  Hebrew  letters  are  read.  But  other 
inscriptions  are  written  boustrophedon,  and  have  to 
be  read,  like  some  of  the  early  inscriptions  in  Greek, 
from  right  to  left  and  from  left  to  right  alternately. 
Often  on  the  seals,  they  are  scarcely  in  a  straight  line 
at  all,  but  present  an  unarranged  and  jumbled  aspect, 
so  that  it  is  difficult  to  know  in  what  order  they  were 
intended  to  be  read.  In  the  more  careful  inscriptions 
on  the  clay  tablets  at  Knosos  the  pictograph  words  or 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  yEGEAN     383 

phrases  are  sometimes  separated  from  each  other  by 
a  mark  of  division  shaped  like  the  letter  "X."  Thus 
is  the  correct  aspect  of  separate  words  or  phrases 
ascertainable. 

The  most  ancient  specimens  of  seals  with  these 
pictographic  signs  are  of  very  primitive  art.  On  the 
evidence  of  the  technique  of  these  seals,  and  of  the 
other  objects  found  with  them,  the  opinion  is  to  be 
accepted  that  the  most  antique  specimens  go  back  to 
the  age  contemporary  with  the  Twelfth  Dynasty  of 
Egypt,  that  is,  to  the  period  included  between  the 
years  2000  and  1600  before  Christ,  approximately,  or 
to  the  beginning  of  the  second  millennium  before 
our  era. 

The  second  kind  of  ^Egean  writing,  the  linear 
script,  is  typologically  much  younger  in  appearance 
than  the  pictographs.  But  chronologically  it  may  be 
just  as  ancient  as  its  older-looking  rival.  The  linear 
system  seems  to  have  been  known  and  used  over  a 
much  wider  area  than  the  pictographs.  For  while  the 
pictographs  may  have  prevailed  nowhere  outside  of 
Krete,  the  linear  writing,  on  the  contrary,  is  found  in 
several  other  islands  and  on  the  mainland  of  Greece, 
although  it  must  not  be  too  readily  taken  for  granted 
that  all  of  these  scattered  specimens  of  linear  writing 
belong  to  one  and  the  same  system.  At  Knosos  alone, 
which  has  been  the  most  productive  mine  for  finds  of 
both  varieties  of  writing,  the  quantity  of  tablets  with 
linear  characters  far  outnumbers  those  with  picto- 
graphic signs. 

In  the  island  of  Kos  there  still  stands  a  splendid 
citadel  which  was  built  in  the  fifteenth  century  by  the 


384  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

Knights  of  Rhodes.  The  Knights  took  as  material 
for  their  fort  the  stones  of  an  old  wall  which  had  been 
built  to  protect  the  city  and  harbor  in  the  year  366 
before  Christ.  On  these  blocks  there  are  yet  clearly 
visible  the  letters  strongly  carved  on  them  as  "mason's 
marks"  by  the  men  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ, 
when  they  were  hewing  the  stones.  And,  strange  to 
say,  among  the  letters  used,  which  are  those  of  the 
universal  Greek  alphabet  of  that  century,  occur  four 
signs  which  are  not  Greek  letters,  but  which  resemble 
four  of  the  Kretan  linear  signs.  Their  presence  can 
be  explained  in  various  ways.  Herzog,  who  dis- 
covered them,  thinks  that  they  are  the  last  and  crystal- 
lized remains  of  the  once  commonly  used  linear  script. 
A  few  specimens  of  linear  signs  have  likewise  been 
found  at  Siphnos,  at  Mykenae,  at  Navplion,  at  Menidi 
in  Attika,  on  the  island  of  Kythera,  and  even  at  Gurob 
and  Kahun  in  Egypt,  and  at  Lachish  in  Palestine. 

What  was  stated  concerning  the  indigenous  nature 
of  the  pictographs  may  with  safety  be  repeated  in 
regard  to  the  linear  script.  It  is  not  of  foreign  and 
imported  origin,  but  was  developed  in  the  region  of 
the  yEgean.  On  account  of  being  more  perfect  typo- 
logically  than  are  the  pictographs,  the  a-priori  sup- 
position is  plausible  that  they  are  therefore  later, 
belonging  to  a  subsequent  and  more  advanced  period 
of  civilization.  But  nevertheless  this  supposition 
seems  to  be  incorrect.  On  deeper  observation  the 
linear  script  appears  to  be  of  equal  age  with  the  picto- 
graphs. It  is  not  derived  from  them,  although  it 
really  goes  back  to  image-writing  for  its  origin.  The 
two  systems,  pictographic  and  linear,  seem,  however, 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  JEGEAN     385 

though  they  were  never  identical,  to  have  mutually 
influenced  each  other  somewhat  in  Krete.  The  Kretan 
linear  system,  regarded  from  a  technical  point  of  view, 
is  much  superior  not  only  to  the  pictographs  of  the 
same  country,  but  is  in  advance  of  the  contemporary 
writing  systems  of  Babylon  and  Egypt.  Although  a 
native  product,  there  is  nevertheless  something  of 
direct  Egyptian  influence  to  be  noticed  in  this  linear 
writing,  as  was  also  observed  to  be  true  in  regard  to 
the  pictographs.  The  "ankh"  and  "ka"  frame  are 
here  represented.  But  still  this  linear  script  is  not 
Egyptian,  nor  is  it  Anatolian.  And  no  scholars,  save 
those  who  try  to  derive  the  whole  of  Mykenseic  cul- 
ture from  the  East,  making  it  to  be  Lydian  or  Karian 
or  Hittite  or  even  Phcenikian,  would  now  persist  in 
attempting  to  find  a  foreign  origin  for  the  linear  script 
of  the  ^Egean. 

The  inscribed  tablets  of  Knosos  are  elongated  cakes 
of  clay,  from  4.50.  to  19.50  centimeters  in  length  and 
from  i. 20  to  7.20  wide.  They  do  not  much  differ 
from  cakes  of  chocolate  in  shape  and  color.  The 
inscriptions  were  incised  with  a  sharp-pointed  stylus, 
while  the  clay  from  which  they  were  made  was  still 
damp.  Then  they  were  dried  by  the  heat  of  the  sun. 
Most  of  the  tablets  unearthed  at  Knosos  had  been 
stored  away  in  chests  located  in  different  rooms  of 
the  vast  labyrinthic  palace.  Considering  their  friable 
nature  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  debris  and 
soil  in  which  they  lay  buried  ever  since  the  sudden 
destruction  of  the  palace  have  preserved  them  so  well 
for  four  thousand  years.  This  mythic  palace  of 
Minos  came  to  its  tragic  end  in  a  great  conflagration, 


386  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

as  the  researches  of  excavation  show.  And  it  is  to 
the  heat  of  this  fire  that  the  good  preservation  of  the 
tablets  is  in  part  due.  They  were  thus  baked  into  a 
more  durable  nature.  The  coffers  in  which  these  tab- 
lets were  lying  stored  away  when  the  conflagration 
fell  upon  the  palace  had  been  officially  closed  and  were 
bound  by  cords  which  could  not  be  removed  except  by 
breaking  the  official  seal  that  was  stamped  upon  them. 
Thus  the  tablets  could  not  be  tampered  with.  A  few 
of  the  impresses  of  these  seals  have  been  found. 

These  clay  tablets  undoubtedly  referred  to  the 
affairs  of  the  powerful  rulers  who  lived  in  the  laby- 
rinth. They  are  the  palace  archives.  Many  of  them 
evidently  relate  to  accounts  concerning  tribute,  or  to 
the  royal  stores.  They  contain  numeral  signs  which 
have  been  recognized  and  in  part  deciphered  and 
interpreted.  Judging  from  such  suggestive  compari- 
son as  can  be  made  with  the  tablets  of  Babylon,  it 
may  be  suspected  that  others  of  these  Knosian  tablets 
refer  to  royal  correspondence,  or  to  treaties  and  com- 
pacts, or  judicial  decisions  or  proclamations.  The 
original  value  of  the  information  contained  in  the 
records  is  shown  by  the  precautions  employed  to  pre- 
vent all  falsification.  Many  of  the  tablets  show  two 
countermarks  or  indorsements  made  by  controlling 
officials.  One  of  these  countermarks  is  on  the  face  of 
the  tablet,  where  the  writing  is,  and  the  other  is  on  the 
back  of  the  tablet. 

The  inscriptions  are  never  long.  Most  of  the  clay 
tablets  have  only  one  or  two  lines  of  script,  which 
oftenest  runs  lengthwise  along  the  upper  face  of  the 
tablet.  Only  one  notably  long  inscription  has  been 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  ^GEAN     387 

found.  It  contains  twenty-four  lines  of  writing. 
Such  tablets  as  have  more  lengthy  inscriptions  are 
scored  with  horizontal  marks  which  separate  the  lines 
of  writing  from  each  other  and  served  as  guidance  for 
the  scribe  when  he  was  incising  the  letters.  The 
writing  runs  from  left  to  right  invariably.  Some- 
times the  words  are  separated  from  each  other  by 
short  upright  lines.  The  letters  are  usually  incised 
with  skilful  care,  and,  when  the  tablet  happens  to  be 
well  preserved,  the  characters  are  quite  easily  legible. 

There  is  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  writing 
on  these  linear  tablets  is  ideographic  rather  than  pho- 
netic or  syllabic.  The  separate  characters  employed 
are  about  seventy  in  number.  These  would  not  be  at 
all  sufficient  for  a  complete  and  satisfactory  set  of 
ideographs.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  seventy  charac- 
ters would  seem  too  many  for  a  phonetic  or  alphabetic 
method.  The  opinion  which  therefore  remains  to  be 
preferred  is  that  they  are  neither  ideographic  nor 
strictly  phonetic,  but  that  they  belong  to  a  syllabic 
system. 

Like  the  pictographs.  these  linear  signs  are  very 
old.  The  oldest  linear  inscriptions  go  back  to  about 
2,000  years  before  Christ,  and  therefore  are  about  five 
hundred  years  earlier  than  the  Moabite  Stone  and  the 
Baal  Lebanon  bowls  which  present  us  with  the  most 
ancient  inscriptions  in  Phrenikian  letters.  Since  the 
classical  alphabet  of  Greece  was  an  adaptation  from 
the  letters  of  the  Phrenikians,  and  was  applied  to  the 
Greek  language  not  earlier  than  the  ninth  century,  we 
see  that  its  presence  on  Greek  soil  was  preceded  by  the 
extensive  prevalence  of  an  older  system  of  writing  a 


388  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

thousand  years  before  these  so-called  Phoenikian 
letters  were  brought  in.  But  for  reasons  which  need 
not  be  repeated  here,  it  must  be  presumed  that  the 
Phoenikian  alphabet  was  originally  developed  from 
some  system  of  pictorial  writing,  and  the  names  of 
some  of  the  Phoenikian  letters,  together  with  their 
most  primitive  shapes,  make  it  possible  for  the  gratui- 
tous supposition  that  the  Phcenikian  alphabet  was 
really  derived,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  from  the  very 
image-writing  that  is  found  in  Krete.  If  this  be  true, 
then  the  Phoenikian  alphabet  and  the  Greek  letters 
which  in  their  derivatives  have  become  the  alphabet  of 
most  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world  go  back  to 
the  prototypes  of  the  ^Egean  script  as  these  were  used 
more  than  four  thousand  years  ago.  And  the  alpha- 
bet in  which  this  book  is  printed  could  then  trace  its 
long  line  of  descent  back  to  the  tablets  and  seal-stones 
of  prehistoric  civilization  in  the  eastern  Mediter- 
ranean. 

In  1901,  new  discoveries  at  Knosos  brought  to  light 
a  fresh  series  of  letter-like  signs,  inscribed  on  rings 
of  bone,  resembling  bracelets,  and  on  other  small 
objects.  These  latest-found  Mykenaeic  signs  are 
linear  in  type,  but  are  not  like  those  other  linear  ones 
which  we  have  been  describing.  Twenty  characters 
of  this  third  kind  of  writing  have  been  recognized, 
fourteen  of  which  are  practically  identical  with  later 
Greek  alphabetic  forms.  This  is  another  great  sur- 
prise. 

It  is  necessary  to  add  that  the  discovery  of  this 
JEgean  writing  may  turn  out  to  be  one  of  the  most 
important  historical  revelations  of  modern  times.  For 


PRE-HELLENIC  WRITING  IN  THE  ;£GEAN     389 

it  may  possibly  furnish  us  with  written  documents 
regarding  the  history  of  man  in  this  most  interesting 
quarter  of  the  Old  World,  the  eastern  Mediterranean, 
from  the  closing  of  the  Neolithic  Age  down  to  the  end 
of  the  Bronze  Age,  when  better  known  historical 
times  begin.  These  inscriptions  will  not  continue  to 
defy  all  attempts  to  decipher  them.  Some  digrammic 
or  bilingual  record  will  furnish  the  first  and  necessary 
cine  to  the  reading.  After  that  all  will  be  compara- 
tively easy.  In  the  meantime  the  world  of  philologians 
and  historians  are  anxiously  awaiting  the  raising  of 
the  mystic  cloud  that  is  yet  covering  this  much  desired 
knowledge. 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK 

As  long  as  civilization  lasts  and  as  long  as  there  con- 
tinues to  exist  a  studious  curiosity  to  know  ourselves 
better,  the  remote  and  reticent  ages  wherein  flourished 
the  more  primitive  races  of  our  kind  will  always  be  a 
fascinating  object  of  historical  research.  An  analysis 
of  the  motives  that  urge  the  investigator  to  try  to  pierce 
the  gloom  which  shuts  off  our  vision  from  so  much 
of  antiquity  would  be  surprisingly  interesting.  Behind 
the  murky  hills  of  time  that  intervene  he  may  possibly 
expect  to  catch  some  glimmering  rays  of  the  cloud- 
covered  civilization  of  those  vanished  peoples.  He  may 
wish  to  compare  their  knowledge  with  his  own  and 
ours.  But  the  line  of  communication  that  connects  us 
with  the  bygone  ages  is  neither  easy  to  establish  nor 
easy  to  keep  open.  The  facts  transmitted  are  often 
unintelligible  and  effectless  because  they  utter  them- 
selves in  language  which  we  cannot  comprehend.  But 
historical  investigation  will  not  fall  into  disrepute  so 
long  as  men  are  anxious  to  know  whence  they  came  and 
where  they  are,  even  if  it  were  more  evident  than  it 
even  now  is  that  the  search  will  always  be  laborious 
and  the  gleanings  meager. 

The  direct  and  imposing  manner  in  which  old  Hel- 
lenic life  has  entered  into  so  many  branches  of  modern 
progress  and  modern  thought  has  drawn  a  goodly 
number  of  antiquarian  investigators  to  devote  their 
energies  exclusively  to  the  study  of  ancient  Hellenism 
and  its  effects  on  the  world.  They  wish  to  learn  the 

39° 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  391 

circumstances  under  which  its  undying  vitality  was 
generated  and  fostered.  It  is  true  that  by  most  of  such 
men  an  ideal  Hellenism  molded  by  their  own  ennobled 
fancy  is  called  into  existence,  an  imaginary  kosmos  of 
artistic  and  intellectual  perfection  which  never  in  the 
history  of  the  ancient  world  possessed  actual  reality. 
This  sublimated  hyper-appreciation  of  Hellenism  has  in 
the  main  been  not  unbeneficial.  It  has  exalted  and 
purified  many  of  our  desires  by  continually  luring  us 
to  higher  spheres  of  action  in  emulation  of  the  true 
or  supposed  eminence  of  our  great  predecessors.  But 
a  more  correct  and  scientific  appreciation  of  antiquity 
may  after  all  be  still  more  inspiring  and  still  more 
instructive  than  any  unjustified  worship  of  it  may  be. 
What  we  now  long  for  is  the  truth,  no  matter  what 
this  truth  reveal  to  us. 

Ever  since  the  renaissance  of  antiquity  in  Europe, 
lovers  of  art  and  history  have  been  digging  up  classic 
sites  and  rummaging  through  stony  ruins  in  quest  of 
objects  of  art  and  records  of  the  past.  But  the  first 
generations  of  these  men  were  simply  amateurs  and 
collectors.  They  were  the  pioneers  in  a  new  science, 
and  had  all  the  imperfections  that  necessarily  affect 
such  beginners.  They  did  great  service  to  mankind, 
however.  Their  zeal  filled  the  museums  of  Italy  and 
the  rest  of  Europe  with  admirable  works  of  art  and 
mementos  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

After  the  restoration  of  freedom  to  modern  Greece, 
in  1828,  this  country  naturally  became  the  choicest  field 
for  excavators;  and  signal  has  been  their  success. 
Athens  and  its  museums,  Delphi,  Olympia,  and  so  many 
other  places  are  witness  to  this.  But  of  all  those  who 


392  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

set  themselves  to  the  task  of  unearthing  buried  Greece, 
the  two  whom  this  present  article  makes  lengthier 
mention  of  are  Schliemann  and  Dorpfeld.  The  former 
is  to  be  praised  for  his  untiring  enthusiasm;  the  latter 
for  his  trained  accuracy.  Schliemann  was  an  adven- 
turous German,  whose  life-dream  from  his  very  child- 
hood was  to  visit  and  investigate  the  places  rendered 
famous  by  the  songs  of  Homer.  After  acquiring  a 
sufficient  amount  of  wealth  as  a  merchant,  he  took  up 
his  residence  in  Hellenic  lands  and  began  to  reap  the 
realization  of  his  longings.  With  fullest  faith  as  to 
the  results  that  would  be  revealed  he  pushed  his  spade 
into  the  soil  of  Ithaka  and  into  the  debris  of  Mykense 
and  Tiryns  and  the  supposed  site  of  Troy.  These 
places  he  preferred  because  they  were  nearest  related 
to  the  Homeric  story.  The  work  of  excavating  had 
not,  even  when  this  scholar  began,  yet  been  raised  to 
the  accuracy  and  dignity  of  a  scientific  procedure,  and 
accordingly  his  enthusiasm  was  often  warmer  than 
his  observations  were  exact.  Nevertheless  he  made  a 
noble  beginning ;  and  others  have  industriously  brought 
method  into  the  work  which  he  so  heartily  initiated. 

In  the  year  1868,  Schliemann  first  set  foot  on  the 
soil  of  the  Troad,  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  Asia 
Minor.  It  was  evident  that  if  Homer's  city  of  Priam 
ever  existed,  it  was  within  this  region  called  the  Troad. 
At  that  time  many  authoritative  historians  preferred 
to  assert  that  such  a  city  had  never  been  in  existence; 
that  Priam's  Troy  and  the  ten-years'  siege  which  it 
sustained  were  mere  poetical  fictions  of  the  early 
troubadours  of  Greece.  In  this  opinion,  however,  these 
unbelievers  were  in  disagreement  with  the  testimony  of 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  393 

the  classic  authors,  none  of  whom  ever  expressed 
doubts  about  the  reality  of  Troy.  Schliemann  belonged 
to  the  coterie  of  those  who  agreed  with  the  classic 
historians  and  geographers,  and  believed  that  there  had 
been  a  real  Troy.  For  him  the  only  questions  that 
challenged  an  answer  were  such  as,  "where  are  the 
ruins  of  that  famous  city;  where  was  the  Pergamos 
of  Priam  situated?  " 

Within  this  Troad  country,  and  not  far  from  the 
Skamandros  River,  are  three  lone  hills,  separated  from 
each  other  by  a  considerable  distance,  each  of  which 
has  been  supposed  to  correspond  to  what  the  site  of 
Troy  seems  to  have  been.  Since  in  those  ages  cities 
in  this  part  of  the  world  were  always  on  hilltops,  the 
search  is  rendered  easier,  because  all  places  in  the  level 
plain  are  excluded  in  advance.  These  three  hills  are  now 
known  by  their  Turkish  names  of  Bunarbashi,  Chiblak, 
and  Hissarlik.  The  knoll  of  Bunarbashi  had  attracted 
the  notice  of  the  traveler  Lechevalier  toward  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century;  he  persuaded  himself  that 
here  must  Troy  have  been.  In  the  year  1864,  an 
Austrian  scholar,  Von  Harm,  suffered  the  same  con- 
viction, made  excavations,  and  published  a  book  an- 
nouncing and  explaining  his  apparent  success.  Under 
the  spell  of  Von  Hahn's  work,  Schliemann  at  first 
selected  Bunarbashi  as  probably  the  site  looked  for. 
But  a  brief  investigation  with  picks  and  shovels  put 
an  end  to  the  identification  of  Bunarbashi  and  Troy. 

After  being  disappointed  at  Bunarbashi  he  examined 
Hissarlik.  The  thorough  historian  Grote,  and  a  few 
other  modern  scholars  had  already  expressed  their 
views  in  favor  of  Hissarlik.  In  1870,  the  excavations 


394  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

were  begun.  And  in  the  summer  of  1873,  Schliemann 
thought  that  he  had  completed  his  task,  and  had  identi- 
fied the  location  of  Priam's  realm.  He  had  actually 
found  a  prehistoric  city.  And  since  high  above  the 
remains  of  this  prehistoric  settlement  inscriptions  were 
found  which  proved  that  from  at  least  the  fourth 
century  before  Christ  there  was  on  the  top  of  the  hill 
a  Greek  town  called  Ilion,  he  concluded  that  the  pre- 
historic town  must  have  been  Priam's  Troy.  He 
joyfully  published  to  the  world  the  results  of  his 
excavations  in  a  book  called  Trojanische  Altertilmer. 

As  time  went  on  Schliemann,  who  in  the  meantime 
had  gained  valuable  anaskaptic  experience  by  his 
wonderful  discoveries  at  Mykenae,  began  like  many 
others  to  have  doubts  regarding  the  accuracy  of  his 
first  conclusions  regarding  Hissarlik.  In  1878,  he 
returned  to  the  Troad  and  inaugurated  new  researches. 
Between  this  time  and  the  year  of  his  death  he  continu- 
ally busied  himself  with  Troy,  and  often  made  new 
excavations.  In  1881,  a  new  book  appeared  with  valu- 
able contributions  by  Burnouf,  a  former  director  of 
the  French  archaeological  school  of  Athens,  and  by 
Virchow,  the  celebrated  Berlin  professor.  Another 
book  was  published  in  1883,  and  a  fourth  publication, 
a  brochure,  appeared  in  1890. 

From  these  four  publications  it  can  be  seen  that 
Schliemann  had  made  great  discoveries  at  Hissarlik; 
but  the  work  had  not  been  systematically  commenced, 
and  therefore  much  confusion  followed.  It  is  not 
necessary  here  to  recount  his  unavoidable  mistakes,  for 
they  have  since  been  corrected  by  his  friend  and  col- 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  395 

laborator    and    able    successor,    Wilhelm    Dorpfeld. 
Heinrich  Schliemann  died  in  December  of  1890. 

The  various  publications  of  Schliemann  had  aroused 
the  interest  of  the  phil-historic  world.  But  of  the  prob- 
lems that  had  been  raised  in  regard  to,  the  different 
ruins  found  on  Hissarlik,  the  more  weighty  ones  still 
remained  unsolved.  Investigations  were  therefore  re- 
sumed in  1893.  The  direction  of  the  excavations  was 
intrusted  to  the  already  experienced  Dorpfeld.  Under 
the  new  direction  surprising  facts  rapidly  began  to 
shape  themselves  out  of  the  chaotic  masses  of  earth 
and  stones.  It  was  ascertained  that  the  successive 
settlements  were  at  least  nine  in  number.  It  was  dis- 
covered that  the  excavations  at  Hissarlik  revealed  to 
us  a  picture  not  only  of  Homer's  city  of  Priam,  but  of 
other  interesting  settlements,  some  of  which  were 
earlier  than  Priam's  city  and  others  were  later.  Ac- 
cordingly the  excavations  were  no  longer  noteworthy 
simply  as  explanatory  of  life  as  Homer  described  it, 
but  because  they  opened  out  a  channel  through  the  life 
of  past  ages  reaching  to  a  length  of  more  than  three 
thousand  years.  The  earliest  settlement  whose  remains 
still  are  strewn  on  the  rock  of  Hissarlik  must  have 
been  founded  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  third 
millennium  before  Christ;  and  the  latest  civic  com- 
munity that  erected  its  houses  and  temples  on  the  top 
of  the  hill  existed  there,  as  the  ruins  show,  until  about 
five  hundred  years  after  the  beginning  of  our  era.  The 
city  of  Priam  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  finally  identi- 
fied. But  it  must  now  divide  its  importance  with  that 
of  the  earlier  settlements,  because  the  meagerness  of 
our  knowledge  of  these  remoter  periods  renders  im- 


396  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

portant  every  slightest  fact  concerning  them.  Definite 
accounts  of  these  important  results  appeared  in  two 
books.  From  the  accounts  contained  in  the  second  of 
these,  this  chapter  of  my  book  receives  its  existence. 

Of  these  nine  clearly  distinct  settlements,  each,  ex- 
cept the  first,  was  built  above  the  debris  formed  by  the 
destruction  of  the  preceding  one.  Each  settlement  is 
clearly  indicated  by  a  thick  and  easily  distinguishable 
stratum  made  by  the  accumulated  debris.  Thus  with 
each  succeeding  community  of  inhabitants  did  the 
niveau  of  the  hill  steadily  grow  higher.  The  first 
settlement  was  on  the  native  rock.  All  the  others  were 
on  successively  higher  levels,  on  previously  formed 
debris. 

Before  indicating  the  stratum  which  is  supposed  to 
contain  the  Homeric  city  of  the  Trojans,  a  short  de- 
scription of  some  of  the  earlier  successive  settlements 
is  not  out  of  place. 

The  oldest  habitations  that  graced  this  hill  were  huts 
of  stone,  built  for  the  sake  of  protection  and  safety  on 
the  top  of  the  then  bare  rock,  which  rises  to  a  height  of 
about  seventy-five  feet  above  the  surrounding  level 
plain.  The  area  of  the  sufficiently  level  summit  was 
much  less  than  20,000  square  meters.  Close  to  the 
edge  of  the  plateau  on  which  their  hovels  stood,  they 
built  a  defensive  wall  round  about.  Outside  of  this 
inclosure  there  probably  were  no  houses.  This  primi- 
tive settlement  was  entirely  confined  to  the  height.  The 
inhabitants  were  masters  of  the  fertile  fields  and 
pasture  lands  in  which  the  hill  stood,  and  from  this 
plain  they  chiefly  drew  their  sustenance.  Their  houses, 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  397 

as  well  as  their  inclosing  wall,  were  built  of  roughly 
broken  stone  put  together  with  clay  mortar. 

Of  all  the  nine  settlements  this  primitive  one  has 
been  the  least  thoroughly  examined.  This  is  because 
much  of  it  cannot  be  reached  by  the  picks  of  the 
excavators  without  first  demolishing  the  ruins  of 
later  settlements  above  it.  Nevertheless  enough  has 
been  unearthed  to  allow  of  an  examination  into  the 
mode  of  life  of  these  primeval  men.  They  came  and 
erected  their  habitations  here  during  the  centuries 
which  are  known  to  anthropologists  as  the  neolithic 
period.  The  neolithic  period  is  the  second  half  of  the 
obscure  "Age  of  Stone,"  when  men  had  not  yet  become 
familiar  with  the  use  of  the  metals  and  used  to  fashion 
most  of  their  cutting  implements  out  of  stone.  It  is 
impossible,  from  the  limited  amount  of  utensils  and 
implements  that  have  been  found,  to  determine  whether 
these  men  had  already  begun  to  make  use  of  copper  as 
well  as  of  stone  for  cutting  instruments,  and  had  thus 
progressed  into  a  higher  period  of  civilization  distin- 
guished by  the  name  of  the  "Copper  Age."  No  copper 
implements  have  been  found.  Their  axes  and  hammers 
and  wedges  and  other  tools  of  this  kind  are  all  of  hard 
varieties  of  native  stone.  Likewise  their  pottery  is 
very  crude.  For  the  early  ages  of  mankind  earthen- 
ware is  a  reliable  indication  of  the  contemporary  grade 
of  culture.  They  had  not  yet  discovered  the  potter's 
wheel.  Their  cups  and  dishes  and  basins  and  vases 
were  fashioned  by  hand,  and  show  all  the  irregularities 
of  articles  made  in  that  way.  These  earthenware 
utensils  were  burned  and  hardened  not  in  potters'  kilns, 
but  in  open  fires.  The  burning  is  therefore  irregular 


398  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

and  uneven.    These  first  dwellers  on  Hissarlik  used  to 

• 

nourish  themselves  on  the  meat  and  milk  of  their  flocks, 
on  the  grain  that  their  fields  produced,  on  the  mollusks 
that  they  gathered  along  the  strand,  and  on  the  fish 
which  the  neighboring  sea  furnished  in  abundance. 
We  cannot  give  exact  dates  to  the  time  of  their  coming 
and  the  time  of  their  disappearance.  We  must  be  satis- 
fied with  saying  that  they  were  "neolithic  men."  But 
for  the  sake  of  grasping  their  epoch  more  tangibly  we 
may  suppose  that  they  flourished  from  about  3000  to 
2500  before  Christ. 

The  second  set  of  inhabitants  who  came  and  took 
up  their  abode  on  Hissarlik  built  a  mighty  citadel  there- 
on. So  imposing  are  the  ruins  and  so  extensive  that 
Schliemann  in  his  untrained  haste  mistook  this  for  the 
city  of  Priam.  This  it  could  not  possibly  be,  however, 
for  it  was  laid  desolate  long  centuries  before  Priam's 
day  had  come.  The  niveau  of  this  second  settlement 
lies  about  fifteen  feet  higher  than  the  rock  surface  on 
which  the  first  inhabitants  had  built.  Five  full  meters 
of  debris  therefore  did  the  primitive  dwellers  leave 
behind  them  after  they  disappeared  from  Hissarlik. 
This  second  settlement,  after  an  existence  of  several 
centuries,  came  to  an  end  about  2,000  years  before 
Christ.  It  perished  in  a  great  conflagration.  The 
"burnt  city,"  as  Schliemann  used  to  call  it,  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  wall,  the  lower  part  of  which  was  built 
of  stone  and  the  upper  part  of  sun-dried  bricks.  The 
stone  portion  had  a  height  of  from  three  to  twenty-five 
feet,  according  to  the  irregularities  of  the  surface 
along  which  it  was  built.  The  upper  portion,  that 
which  was  made  of  sun-dried  bricks,  was  considerably 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  399 

higher  than  three  meters.  The  entire  height  of  the 
wall,  therefore,  varied  from  about  thirteen  to  thirty- 
five  feet.  The  houses  were  of  quarried  stone,  were 
well  built,  but  small. 

The  civilization  which  flourished  in  this  "burnt  city" 
was  that  of  the  "Bronze"  period.  Wherever  the  va- 
rious degrees  of  civilization  are  found  uninterruptedly 
succeeding  each  other,  the  neolithic  period  is  supposed 
to  be  followed  not  by  the  bronze  but  by  the  copper 
period.  Men  learn  to  use  copper  before  they  learn  how 
to  manufacture  bronze.  At  Hissarlik,  however,  no 
traces  of  a  copper  period  are  recognizable.  The  primi- 
tive men  of  the  first  settlement  may  have  perished  or 
departed  before  they  had  begun  the  use  of  the  metals, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  "burnt  city"  may  have  come 
to  Hissarlik  after  they  had  already  discovered  not  only 
how  to  use  copper,  but  how  to  manufacture  bronze. 
The  use  of  copper  and  bronze,  however,  did  not  put 
an  end  to  all  use  of  stone  for  the  manufacture  of  cut- 
ting implements.  Stone  axes  and  hammers  and  celts 
are  found  here  along  with  similar  implements  in 
bronze.  The  potter's  wheel  was  already  known,  or  at 
least  during  this  period  was  discovered  and  employed. 

After  some  great  conflagration  had  wiped  this  town 
out  of  existence,  three  new  small  settlements  succeeded 
each  other  on  top  of  the  ashes  and  ruins  of  the  "burnt 
city."  These  were  miserable  and  insignificant  com- 
munities whose  dwellings  were  like  hovels  as  compared 
with  the  mighty  citadel  of  the  "burnt  city"  which  had 
preceded  them  and  the  splendid  "Mykenseic"  town 
which  was  to  be  their  successor.  But  nevertheless 
interesting  objects  of  lead  and  bronze  and  electrum  and 


400  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

silver  and  purest  gold,  earrings  and  bracelets  and 
golden  goblets  have  been  dug  up  in  strata  of  earth 
which  possibly  represent  these  settlements.  Care  had 
not  been  taken  at  the  beginning  of  the  excavations  to 
distinguish  these  strata  from  each  other  and  from  what 
was  above  and  below.  The  fifth  settlement  disappeared 
about  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

The  ashes,  heaps  of  stones,  broken  bricks,  fragments 
of  pottery,  all  kinds  of  offal  and  accumulated  dirt  and 
dust  had  raised  the  surface  of  the  hill  to  about  50  feet 
higher  than  the  original  top,  when  there  came  a  sixth 
set  of  inhabitants  and  constructed  a  new  citadel,  a  new 
town.  By  the  investigations  which  Dorpf  eld  made  here 
in  the  year  1893  this  citadel  was  discovered  to  have 
been  built  and  inhabited  in  the  age  which  is  called 
"Mykenseic,"  an  age  which  by  approximative  calcula- 
tions may  be  fixed  within  the  years  of  1500  to  1000 
before  Christ.  The  name  of  this  age  is  taken  from  the 
Peloponnesian  town  of  Mykenae,  which  during  these 
centuries  was  at  the  height  of  its  glory.  Indeed  there 
are  many  indications  which  go  to  show  that  the  lords 
of  this  sixth  town  were  well  acquainted  with  the  other 
"Mykenaeic"  towns  of  the  y£gean  Sea,  and  that  they 
cultivated  commercial  intercourse  with  the  merchants 
of  the  Peloponnesian  Tiryns  and  Mykense,  and  with  the 
Kretan  town  of  Knosos.  Two  distinct  kinds  of  earth- 
enware articles  were  in  common  use  in  this  sixth  city. 
One  variety  was  of  native  manufacture ;  we  may  call  it 
"Troic."  The  other  was  imported,  and  is  of  the  style 
classed  as  "Mykenaeic."  The  quantity  of  Mykenaeic 
wares  that  were  brought  in  from  foreign  manufactories 
was  considerable.  The  debris  of  this  sixth  or  Troic 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  401 

town  is  rich  in  potsherds.  These  imported  wares  were 
so  popular  that  the  native  manufacturers  who  produced 
Troi'c  wares  found  themselves  obliged  to  imitate  the 
shapes  and  varieties  of  the  foreign  goods.  All  of  this 
shows  that  in  those  days  intercommunication  by  sea 
was  easy  and  frequent  among  the  towns  on  the  shores 
of  the  ^Egean.  These  fragments  of  pottery  are  highly 
prized  by  the  antiquarians.  It  is  by  pottery  more  than 
by  any  other  finds  that  this  Troic  city  has  been  ap- 
proximately dated. 

A  high  wall,  originally  of  sun-dried  bricks,  but  later 
rebuilt  with  hewn  stone,  surrounded  the  Mykenaeic  city. 
Two-thirds  of  this  stone  wall  with  its  solid  towers  are 
still  quite  well  preserved  to  a  considerable  height.  But 
the  northwest  portion  has  been  so  completely  destroyed 
that  not  even  the  foundation  stones  were  left.  The 
geographer  Strabon  records  an  assertion  that  about 
550  years  before  Christ  the  walls  of  the  town  of 
Sigeion  were  erected  with  stone  taken  from  ancient 
Troy,  which  then  was  uninhabited;  and  that  likewise 
the  town  of  Achilleion  was  built  with  stone  of  the  same 
provenance.  Possibly,  therefore,  it  was  under  these 
circumstances  that  the  northwest  portion  of  this  wall 
was  carried  away ;  for  as  has  already  been  stated,  this 
sixth  city  has  been  identified  as  ancient  Troy.  Three 
magnificent  entrance  gates  are  to  be  seen  in  the  part  of 
the  wall  which  is  yet  preserved.  Probably  a  fourth  one 
was  in  the  wall  which  has  disappeared.  Of  the  three 
which  are  preserved,  one  looks  toward  the  east,  an- 
other to  the  south,  and  the  third  one  to  the  west.  The 
missing  one  would  have  faced  the  north. 

This  wall  did  not  inclose  an  extensive  area.    About 


402  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

20,000  square  meters  was  the  extent  of  the  artificial 
surface  of  the  hill.  Immediately  inside  the  wall  a  wide 
street  encircled  the  entire  town.  Above  this  street  the 
buildings  stood  on  concentric  terraces  three  or  four 
in  number,  each  terrace  being  higher  than  the  one  out- 
side it.  Narrower  streets  radiated  from  the  center 
of  the  town  down  to  the  gates  and  the  ring-street  near 
the  walls.  Probably  the  most  important  edifices  were 
in  the  middle  of  the  town,  on  the  highest  terrace.  But 
no  traces  whatsoever  of  them  have  remained,  because 
when  in  Roman  imperial  times  the  Greek  city,  which 
then  existed  here,  was  enriched  by  new  buildings,  the 
top  of  the  hill  was  cut  off  and  the  upmost  terrace  was 
entirely  removed.  Thus  were  destroyed  whatever 
foundations  of  Priam's  Troy  may  have  then  existed  on 
that  most  conspicuous  site  of  the  town. 

From  such  foundations  as  have  been  preserved  it 
can  be  seen  that  the  dwelling-houses  consisted  for  the 
most  part  each  of  one  spacious  room,  built  of  stone. 
Each  house  stood  separate.  There  were  no  party  walls. 
Narrow  gangways  separated  house  from  house.  In 
many  of  the  houses  strong  earthenware  vessels  as  large 
as  the  most  capacious  barrels,  stood  buried  in  the  clay 
floor  of  the  houses  and  served  as  storing-places  for 
grain  and  other  articles  of  food.  There  were  also 
special  rooms  with  groups  of  such  buried  vessels. 
These  rooms  must  have  been  magazines. 

Not  even  in  the  sixth  settlement  was  iron  used  as  a 
material  for  the  making  of  cutting  instruments.  The 
"Iron  Age"  had  not  yet  begun.  Bronze  and  copper 
were  still  the  commonest  metallic  substances.  Double- 
edged  axes,  celts,  sickles,  lance  heads,  needles,  razors, 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  4°3 

and  knives  of  bronze  have  been  dug  up.  Likewise  the 
more  primitive  custom  of  making  many  articles  out  of 
stone  and  bone  had  not  been  abandoned.  With  these 
ancient  peoples,  as  with  us,  the  introduction  of  a  more 
perfect  material  did  not  necessarily  exclude  the  con- 
tinued use  of  previously  known  and  more  imperfect 
kinds. 

About  one  thousand  years  before  Christ  Mykenaeic 
civilization  began  to  die  out  in  all  of  the  places  of  the 
^gean  where  it  had  so  long  been  flourishing.  What 
the  causes  were  that  brought  down  this  catastrophe 
upon  these  powerful  communities  we  do  not  know. 
Like  the  other  Mykenseic  cities,  so  also  did  Troy  cease 
to  exist  about  this  time.  Indeed  it  was  one  of  the  first 
of  these  cities  to  disappear.  Possibly  the  decay  of 
many  of  the  other  Mykenseic  cities  was  gradual  and 
came  somewhat  later;  but  the  downfall  of  Troy  was 
sudden.  The  condition  of  the  ruins  prove  that  the  city 
did  not  decay  by  having  been  abandoned,  but  that  it 
was  destroyed  by  a  foe.  Most  of  it  was  laid  waste 
by  a  fierce  and  purposed  conflagration.  Portions  of  the 
citadel  wall,  of  the  gates,  and  of  the  houses  are  torn 
down  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  the  work  of  de- 
struction was  not  accidental  but  intentional — the  acts 
of  an  enemy  who  had  captured  the  town. 

This  sixth  city  is  Homer's  city  of  Priam.  The 
results  of  the  excavations  correspond  most  minutely 
with  what  a  study  of  the  Iliad  compels  us  to  think  that 
Troy  must  have  been.  The  sixth  city  is  proven  to  have 
been  contemporary  with  Mykenre,  where  ruled  the 
powerful  Agamemnon,  who  led  the  Achreans  in  the 
vengeful  war  against  Priam.  It  is  situated  on  the  spot 


404  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

where  ancient  tradition  believed  Troy  once  to  have 
been.  It  perished  by  being  captured  and  pillaged  and 
burned,  as  the  great  Epic  narrates  to  have  happened 
to  Priam's  city.  One  is  even  inclined  to  think  that  per- 
haps the  bards  who  composed  the  older  songs  of  the 
Iliad  were  well  acquainted  with  this  sixth  city  or  at 
least  with  its  ruins,  so  true  to  it  and  its  surroundings 
are  their  descriptions  of  Priam's  city,  the  hill,  the  city 
walls,  the  towers,  the  gates,  the  plain  of  the  Skaman- 
dros,  and  the  sea  coast.  It  is  true  that  there  are  diffi- 
culties against  accepting  this  intimate  acquaintance  of 
the  poets  with  this  Mykenaeic  citadel.  For  instance, 
the  city,  as  now  excavated,  was  not  spacious  enough  to 
contain  the  large  army  of  defenders  which  the  later 
parts  of  the  Iliad  assign  to  Troy.  But  in  matter  of 
numbers  poets  may  be  allowed  to  have  made  use  of 
their  usual  license.  With  Dorpfeld  we  might  trim 
Homer's  figures  from  50,000  down  to  5,000.  An 
easier  and  lazier  way,  however,  of  explaining  both  the 
coincidences  and  the  incongruities  is  to  believe  that 
Homer's  descriptions  are  very  general  and  would  in 
good  part  suit  any  important  town  of  the  Mykenaeic 
Age. 

We  now  take  leave  of  the  sixth  city,  which  was 
Priam's,  and  pass  on  to  the  later  settlements.  After 
the  destruction  of  Troy,  the  hill  remained  desolate  for 
a  time  and  then  was  repeopled  by  inhabitants  who  still 
followed  the  lines  of  waning  Mykenaeic  civilization. 
But  about  700  years  before  Christ  an  entirely  different 
set  of  invaders  came  and  occupied  the  hilltop,  putting 
an  end  to  all  Mykenaeic  life.  The  nature  of  the  imple- 
ments, and  pottery  which  these  new-comers  made  for 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  4°5 

themselves  leads  us  to  the  supposition  that  they  had 
learned  their  arts  in  a  European  region,  perhaps  along 
the  shores  of  the  Danube.  These  Europeans  did  not 
build  any  lasting  dwellings  here.  In  part  they  occupied 
the  stone  huts  of  the  Mykenaeic  inhabitants  whom  they 
may  have  driven  out,  and  in  part  they  built  for  them- 
selves shelters  of  osiers  and  mud,  as  they  had  done 
when  living  near  the  Danube.  Instruments  and  utensils 
similar  to  those  of  these  European  squatters  on  His- 
sarlik  are  found  in  Hungary  near  the  Danube,  and  are 
commonly  attributed  to  post-neolithic  times.  They  are 
peculiarly  made  earthenware  vases,  stone  hammers, 
axes,  celts. 

Who  these  Europeans  were  would  be  hard  to  im- 
agine, if  Strabon  did  not  mention  "Treri"  as  having 
made  settlements  in  the  Troad  round  Abydos,  and 
"Kimmerii"  as  also  having  come  into  these  same  re- 
gions. Now  these  invasions  of  Treri  and  Kimmerii 
that  Strabon  refers  to  could  well  have  taken  place  seven 
or  eight  centuries  before  Christ  and  would  well  corre- 
spond with  the  epoch  of  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans 
at  Hissarlik.  The  Treri  were  a  people  who  dwelt 
south  of  the  Danube,  in  the  country  now  called  Bul- 
garia. The  Kimmerii  inhabited  the  country  north  of 
the  Danube,  between  that  river  and  the  shores  of  the 
Don.  So  there  is  some  slight  reason  for  conjecturing 
that  the  strangers  who  ousted  the  settlers  of  the  seventh 
town  were  either  Kimmerii  or  Treri,  or  both  united. 

Concerning  the  men  who  dwelt  in  the  several  pre- 
ceding settlements,  we  know  very  little  about  their 
nationality  and  equally  little  about  the  languages  which 
they  spoke.  But  of  those  who  came  and  built  the 


406  HELLADIAN  VISTAS 

eighth  town  there  is  no  room  for  the  smallest  doubt. 
They  were  of  Hellenic  race  and  spoke  a  Hellenic 
tongue.  With  the  departure  of  the  European  squatters 
begins  the  clearly  historical  career  of  this  place.  The 
Hellenic  town  was  usually  called  not  "Troy"  but 
"Ilion."  This  historically  well-authenticated  town  of 
Ilion  never  was  of  active  importance  in  the  world.  It 
possessed  no  special  fame  save  what  it  owned  by  being 
the  occupant  of  the  site  of  the  storied  Troy  of  Priam. 
Its  mysterious  traditions  made  it  always  revered. 
Xerxes  when  on  his  way  to  invade  Greece  stopped  there 
to  sacrifice  a  thousand  steers  to  Iliac  Athena,  the 
tutelary  goddess  of  the  Hellenic  inhabitants.  Alex- 
ander on  his  expedition  of  conquest  against  Persia 
interrupted  his  march  and  turned  from  his  course  to 
perform  sacred  rites  at  the  tomb  of  Homer's  hero, 
Achilles. 

When  the  Romans  became  masters  of  this  part  of 
the  world  they  showed  many  favors  to  the  Ilians.  The 
Romans  were  proud  of  the  myths  that  connected  the 
history  of  Latium  and  of  Rome  with  /^neas  and  the 
city  of  Troy.  Under  Roman  tutelage  Ilion  was  en- 
larged, beautified,  and  in  part  rebuilt.  This  Roman 
city  formed  the  debris  of  the  ninth  stratum  on  His- 
sarlik.  The  Roman  town  was  larger  than  any  of  those 
that  had  preceded  it.  The  ancient  hill  was  made  to 
serve  merely  as  a  citadel.  Round  about  the  foot  of  this 
citadel  new  quarters  were  built.  This  lower  and  spa- 
cious town  was  protected  by  a  new  wall.  So  much 
did  the  Romans  respect  Ilion  that  Caesar  thought  of 
removing  the  seat  of  empire  thither  from  Rome. 
Augustus  rebuilt  on  a  more  magnificent  scale  the  splen- 


THE  HILL  OF  HISSARLIK  407 

did  temple  of  Iliac  Athena.  Roman  Ilion  continued  to 
be  inhabited  until  perhaps  about  five  hundred  years 
after  Christ.  Then  under  Byzantine  rule  it  dwindled 
away.  Under  Turkish  domination  the  hill  of  Hissarlik, 
which  for  thirty-five  centuries  had  been  the  abode  of 
successive  tribes  of  men,  and  had  been  honored  by  the 
immortal  songs  of  the  Homeric  troubadours,  was 
merely  a  wind-swept  stony  height. 


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Form  L9-Series  4939 


A     000  881  666     2 


I  iliii  i! ; 


It 


